In the last few hours, the Bangkok Post and several other sources are reporting that areas of northern Bangkok that were beginning to flood more yesterday are already receding.
The flood water that had been slowly heading towards Lak Si on Vibhavadi yesterday morning is less and hasn’t moved any further down the road. The water in various areas of Chaengwattana, close to Vibhavadi, has also receded slightly.
The government has reported continued success with pumping water away from the flooded areas and down the eastern and western sides of the city, so that makes sense.
It also means the “massive flooding” that was reported to be arriving at Kaset Sart and the Ladprao Vibhavadi intersection in Bangkok today won’t be coming after all.
Reports all day yesterday were slightly hysterical too with several newspapers, including the Bangkok Post and the Nation, trying to top each other with shock headlines designed to cause a panic, and Twitter all a quiver with people tweeting about the impending doom.
Froc, the Flood Relief Operations Centre, caused panic even more by saying all Bangkokians should leave the city. Really. All 12 million of us. (see photo above of Bangkok Post headline – “Leave, city residents told”.)
The lesser panicked among us though tended to be less worried and unbelieving of the news we were reading. After all, somebody has to keep a level head.
Now, let’s see if the hysteria surrounding this weekend’s high tides and more impending doom will come true or, yet again, be just another lot of hysteria.