San Francisco Frontiers - Bangkok floods send thousands into shelters after days of rain

Pedestrians in plastic rain ponchos waded through murky, knee-deep water in the Thai capital, some venturing into a supermarket while others floated their belongings in plastic tubs.

"People cannot get out of their homes. We are running out of food, so I came out to purchase some," Aduenan Surorot, a motorbike-taxi driver, told AFP outside a grocery store.

The shops near his house -- where flooding was still at chest level -- were low on stock, the 30-year-old said.

He waited about two hours in the cashier's queue, with customers crowded inside but few staff working.

Some stores had empty shelves over the weekend as residents raced to buy essentials, while fresh produce at market stalls was kept dry in polystyrene foam boxes or hanging just above the water level.

The prime minister's office asked the public to avoid panic-buying and warned that price gouging was a criminal offence.

Thailand is used to wet weather and September is the peak of the rainy season, but several Bangkok residents said this year seemed worse than previous ones.

Office worker Bandit Pankan was among those frustrated that official warnings came too late.

"I didn't prepare for it at all," he said. "We got an SMS alert from (the disaster agency) yesterday, but the water flooded in the night before."

- 'Sleeping on the table' -

More than 330 millimetres (13 inches) of rain fell in some areas of the city between Thursday and Sunday, the weather agency said.

Nearly 4,900 people have been evacuated to shelters, with around 52,000 households affected by the floods, which prompted a disaster declaration across the capital, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said on social media Sunday that several roads remained flooded and water levels in the city's canals were still high, but authorities were working to speed up drainage.

Chadchart visited a temporary shelter on Saturday in a school in the Kheha Romklao area, where he said about 1,000 people were evacuated.

Some rested on cots and benches with their dogs in hallways, while others lay with blankets on the floors of classrooms.

Hundreds of schools will be closed on Monday, according to city authorities.

Kosin Nilset, who lives along the Premprachakorn canal on the outskirts of the capital, said his house was "underwater for about 30 hours".

"This time, the water level is higher than the 2011 flood," the 44-year-old told AFP, using a broom to sweep out water.

Widespread deluges across the Southeast Asian country in 2011 killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes.

Scientists warn that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions.

More than 10,000 soldiers were deployed nationwide to aid in flood relief efforts, the defence ministry said.

Rain was forecast throughout Sunday for Bangkok and its surrounding provinces and would begin to taper off on Monday, the metropolitan administration said.

Thidarat Silsuwan, who lives alone in her partially submerged house along the Premprachakorn canal, said she did not want to go to a shelter as she worked to clean up and salvage her belongings.

"I have been sleeping on the table for two days now," the 56-year-old said.

E.Walker--SFF