San Francisco Frontiers - Tolls mount in Thailand, Myanmar floods

The casualties in Thailand have occurred in three eastern provinces since September 16, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with none reported in the capital.

More than 500,000 households and 1.7 million people across 27 provinces are currently affected by floods in Thailand after an intense weather system hit the region, it said.

In hard-hit Bangkok, schools were closed and authorities urged people to work from home where possible -- a call that many heeded, with roads and public transport networks noticeably quieter.

More than 80,000 people were unable to leave their homes in the capital due to flooding, the interior ministry said.

Nattapon Mankean, 32, said his apartment complex in Bang Kapi, eastern Bangkok, had no electricity or water, so he and his girlfriend fled with two cats, one in a cage and the other in a specialised rucksack.

"Our phone batteries died, we had no running water -- everything became difficult," the 32-year-old told AFP late on Sunday.

"It was terrible, I couldn't do anything," he added. "I had to get out."

Authorities declared a city-wide disaster on Saturday after almost 48 hours of heavy rain, and on Monday some residents were still wading through thigh-high waters.

In Bang Kapi locals used ice-boxes and other floating plastic containers to cart supplies from nearby markets and supermarkets, AFP reporters saw.

- Myanmar deaths -

The rains that lashed Thailand also hit neighbouring Myanmar, where rescuers said heavy floods and landslides in the southern region of Tanintharyi had killed at least eight people.

"We have recovered eight bodies while between 20 to 30 people are missing" in Launglon township, said Hein Htet, of the local volunteer group People's Administration Team.

Three of the recovered bodies were teenagers who had gathered at a local monastery on Sunday but were swept away by a landslide that hit their village, burying 18 buildings, he said.

"There are still people and villages in the danger zone with continued rainfall," he warned.

Myanmar's civil war often makes the scale of natural disasters hard for humanitarian organisations to judge, as well as complicating relief efforts.

"We are inundated not only with the scale of the flood but also with the lack of resources. This is a natural disaster in the conflict area," said Hein Htet.

- Up to a week -

September is the peak of Thailand's rainy season, but many Bangkok residents said this year's floods seemed worse than previous ones.

The city is built on former marshlands and is intersected by a network of canals, many of them heavily flooded by the rains.

Pumping stations have been operating at full capacity for days, but Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said Sunday it could take "up to a week" for the waters to fully drain.

Thousands of residents have decamped to temporary shelters.

In a briefing on Monday, government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises said floods were receding, but "some areas in Bangkok are still facing high water levels".

"I was so shocked, things happened so quickly," said Samran, a retired company worker whose building was flooded.

"My flat's car park was under water -- it never floods, even in 2011" when hundreds of people died across Thailand in heavy deluges, he said, asking AFP not to publish his family name.

"I have drinking water but I do not have water for my toilet," he said, saying he had to use a bucket to pull water up through the window to his second-floor apartment.

Scientists warn the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase as global warming accelerates because of fossil fuel emissions.

K.Gray--SFF