น้ำ

น้ำ (pronounced "nam") means water in Thai...

We have a problem right now, and น้ำ pretty much sums it up.

Every year it rains in Thailaind, for about 6 months... This year has been exceptionally wet, and I'm afraid things are about to get very soggy in our neck of the woods.

Tonight on TV, I saw Al Jazeera report that "some rice fields in Thailand have been damaged by the flooding." They are well ahead of the western news agencies, and they are at least a week behind what's going on here. 250 are confirmed dead and many more missing. Over 1000 factories are now reported under water in Thailand's industrial areas. HTI is still okay. Flooding is expected to get much worse in the next week.

Pictures below are from my commute home on Friday night.

Sandbags are being filled outside the HTI pland in Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya, Thailand.

The road in the picture below is on top of the levy protecting the Rojana Industrial park. The water level in the canal is about 1 meter above the ground level in the industrial park, out of view to the right.

The water in the fields to the north is even higher than in the canal

I'm concerned I may not be able to make it to work on Monday. My primary route to work, the Asia highway, is now under water. The pictures below are on an alternate route. For those of you who know the area, this is on the road to Saraburi near Wang Noi, close to the MPT factory.

And further south, Phahoyothin road near Thammasat University is also slipping under the water.

The water was high enough that traffic on the Don Muang elevated toll road was being turned around as there was no was no dry ground to the north.

Water in Ayutthaya is expected to rise another 50cm or more, which puts HTI at moderate risk. The primary concern is whether or not the levy's will hold. Tonight dump trucks were bringing in loads of dirt to build up the flood protection.

Bangkok is expected to experience serious flooding within the next week.

If you're the praying type, please pray for my driver "Puk" and his family. Last time I saw him was Wednesday night after work. He was going back to help his family in severely flooded Ayutthaya Thailand. That was 2 days ago. Yesterday on the phone he said he just needed to cry, and he would call to let me know if he would work today (Friday). I haven't heard from him in 36 hours.

We are safe and dry on floor 22 of our condo.