Thailand floods threaten Bangkok

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tried to reassure residents of Bangkok on Friday that
the capital should largely escape the flooding that is now threatening the city.

At least 289 people have been killed around the country by heavy monsoon rain, floods and mudslides since late July. The north, northeast and centre of Thailand have been worst hit.

Kirsten Mildren of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is in Bangkok and says this weekend will be the test of the city’s flood defenses.

“Now where the real risk is, is this weekend, because we have high tide, heavy rains still coming down, and that’s when the rest of the waters from the north is expected to come,” she said. “So if its going to flood in Bangkok, it will this weekend. So they’re certainly doing everything they can, the national efforts to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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