Bangkok residents in a bind: flee rising waters, or stay?

Many residents have heeded the government’s warnings and packed their bags, crowding train and bus stations and causing massive traffic jams on the roads leading out of the capital.

 

Nuttaporn Surapitthayanon is a Bangkok resident who decided to flee.
 
My husband and I left Bangkok last week because we became convinced that 100 percent of the city would end up under water. We packed up all our belongings on our house’s first floor and stored them on the second.
 
Two weeks ago, when the threat started building, we decided to try and stay in Bangkok. We bought food and drinking water to last us a week. We had no problems buying food then. But as our supplies dwindled down, we realised it was becoming much harder to find food and water – there was much less of it at the stores near our home. And the big supermarket in our area was mobbed – we could not even find a parking space.
 
Then, a friend of ours in Ayutthaya [a city 85 kilometres north of Bangkok] lost his home. He told us the water arrived very quickly; he had not been warned about this and he couldn’t move any of his belongings out of his home in time. This scared us. We realised Bangkok might not be safe for us anymore because the government cannot say for sure how high the water will rise, or how long we might have to stay without water or electricity.
 
When we left, many people thought we were crazy. But now, our friends are finally fleeing too.”