Thailand floods: Some residents defy warnings and stay to help evacuees
Despite the various evacuation warnings that Thailand floods are serious, Bangkok citizens are staying in the inundated areas and doing what they can to help those who need it.
Bangkok, Thailand
In a corner of the upstairs departure terminal at Bangkok’s now-closed Don Muang airport, Chutimas Suksai and six friends are taping empty water bottles together to create an improvised raft.
Ms. Chutimas, a student from Thammasat University, on the other side of the city, has spent most of the past two weeks volunteering her time to help some of the hundreds of thousands of Thais affected by three months of rain and flooding, which has killed more than 360 people, with an estimated 1 million of Bangkok's estimated 12 million residents already evacuated.
When Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced that the capital should brace for four to six weeks of flooding, citizens who stayed in Bangkok, such as Chutimas and her friends, started looking for ways to help people ride out what could be a long-lasting deluge.
“It seems some of Bangkok will be flooded for a long time, so we will give these rafts to people in Rangsit [a flooded suburb to the north of the airport], so they can float food and water to their homes,” she says.
PHOTO GALLERY Thailand's worst flooding in 50 years
Despite the various evacuation warnings coming from the national government and the Bangkok city administration, many people – especially those with upstairs rooms and access to boats or big-wheel trucks – are staying in the inundated areas and doing what they can to help those who need assistance.
