Flood likely to persist for weeks, Thai warns

BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand’s prime minister said Saturday that catastrophic floods may take up to six weeks to recede, as residents living in Bangkok’s outskirts sloshed through waist-high waters in some areas, and the human toll from the crisis nationwide rose to 356 dead and more than 110,000 displaced.

Water bearing down on the capital from the north began spilling through Bangkok’s outer districts Friday and continued creeping in Saturday. So far, however, most of the metropolis of 9 million people has escaped unharmed, and its two airports are operating normally.

Bangkokians are girding for the worst, though, after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last week urged all residents to move valuables to higher ground.

A mild panic prompted a run on grocery stores, with many running out of bottled water. A Thai company that distributes drinking water across the city sent out a text message to customers announcing deliveries had been halted because of the crisis.

The government’s emergency relief center said flooding in the city was occurring at “concentrated points.” One of them, the northern district of Don Muang, was partly inundated after floodwaters burst through a canal barrier wall that workers were scrambling to repair overnight.

Don Muang is home to the capital’s second airport, as well as the government flood-relief center. But some residents in swamped areas said they were running short on food. Volunteers who had been preparing to send emergency supplies to Ayutthaya, a city north of Bangkok were forced to consume them instead.

“Now we’ve become flood victims” ourselves, 53-year-old Pimnipha Na Bangchang said. “We’re distributing this food aid to our community because we haven’t received any help.”

Also Saturday, Bangkok’s governor advised several thousand people living along the city’s Chao Phraya River to move as high tides expected today could cause the river to overflow its banks in areas.

Excessive monsoon rains have deluged a third of the Southeast Asian nation since late July, causing billions of dollars in damage and putting nearly 700,000 people temporarily out of work.

Information for this article was contributed by Thanyarat Doksone of The Associated Press.