Devastating floods threaten Bangkok

Thailand's prime minister urged Bangkok's residents to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground today as the country's worst floods in half a century began seeping into the capital's outer districts. The warning came one day after the government decided to open some canals Thursday to allow water to run through the inner city, which carries the risk of inundating some districts but relieves the pressure on dikes.

Excessive rains and storms have devastated a vast swath of Asia this year, killing 745 people—a quarter of them children—in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines. In Thailand, the flooding has killed at least 342 people since July and has damaged industrialised areas to the north of Bangkok.

Bishop Joseph Pibul’s diocese of Nakhon Sawan has seen some of the worst of the flooding. “I can see the problem arrive from one province to another province,” he said. “The scenario is almost always the same: big confusion. The calamity is starting in central Bangkok, before moving to the sea. So this is the scenario: big confusion at the Bangkok level.”

Listen to the full interview of Bishop Joseph Pibul with Christopher Wells: