Rising Thai Floodwaters Reach Bangkok

Flooded highway interchange at Pathum Thani north of Bangkok on October 20

Knee high floodwaters began inundating outlying sections and neighborhoods of the Thai capital this week as officials warned resident to move their belongings to higher ground.

Knee-high floods began to appear in some outer districts of the city, a day after authorities said they would take the risky move of releasing some waters that had been building up in recent days behind barricades fashioned along the city's northern outskirts. The idea is to let some waters run through the canals that crisscross Bangkok to escape to the sea, but it was unknown whether the operation could be executed without inundating large parts of the capital.

In Thailand, more than 200 major highways and roads are now impassable, while several key industrial estates have been inundated. Damages are expected to tally at least $6 billion and shave up to two percentage points off gross domestic product, according to economists' estimates. Humanitarian groups said parts of the affected provinces-- covering about a third of Thailand -- are inaccessible, with some towns under water more than six feet high.

There are several industrial parks around Bangkok that provide components for products from companies such as Toyota [NYSE: TM], Apple Computers [NASDAQ: AAPL] , Honda Motors [NYSE: HMC] and Sony [NYSE: SNE] that have halted production at their Thai facilities due to the ongoing flooding, further disrupting supply chains already in disarray from the March 2011 quake and tsunami that struck Japan.

State Railways of Thailand (SRT) passenger tran traversing flooded are near Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand on October 19, 2011. Lerdchai Seangsong photo

Some of the expressways in and out of the capital had literally become parking lots as the high overpasses were the only high ground that the motorists were able to find. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and over government officials have warned that the floodwaters could take as long as 6 weeks to fully receede.
Earlier this month, the Kingdom's State Railway of Thailand shut down freight and passenger service to two northern cities while more recently it offered tourists refunds on tickets rendered unusable due to suspension of service because of the floods.