Thai floods cover 2,700 square kilometres and the death toll reaches 40

Floods across four Thai regions have killed 40 people and covered about 2,700 square kilometres, government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises said on Wednesday. The Public Health Ministry supplied the fatality figure. The water is still moving, and the next peak is expected on the Bang Pakong river in the east.

Ekkapob split the flooded area into 2,208 square kilometres in the Central Plains, 284 in the east, 236 in the northeast and eight in Kanchanaburi, the only western province on the list. The Central Plains hold most of the water and most of the deaths. Bangkok city hall said 748 communities were still flooded in 15 districts: Klong Sam Wa, Khannayao, Chatuchak, Bang Khen, Bang Kapi, Bung Kum, Prawet, Min Buri, Lat Krabang, Wang Thonglang, Suan Luang, Saphan Sung, Sai Mai, Nong Chok and Laksi. Buses and trucks were running through standing water on Nawamin Road in Bang Kapi on Wednesday morning.

The earlier count from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, reflected in an International Federation of Red Cross update dated 28 September, was lower. That report listed 23 deaths, no recorded injuries, and about 2.56 million people affected across 41 provinces, 214 districts and 5,164 villages. As of 28 September the water was still in 28 provinces and about 2.55 million people. Bangkok alone accounted for about 329,000 households and four of the deaths in that tally. Samut Prakan had 260,784 households affected and eight deaths. Pathum Thani had 113,323 households and one death. Chon Buri had 118,723 households affected.

The jump from 23 deaths to 40 in two days is the figure to watch, not the provincial map. Standing water kills through drowning, electrocution and delayed medical care, and the public health number tends to lag the disaster-agency map. Ekkapob quoted the health ministry, which is why the Wednesday toll sits above the Monday disaster report. Both can be true of different moments.

In the east, Prachin Buri was due to crest on Wednesday, with the flow then moving toward Nakhon Nayok and the Bang Pakong in Chachoengsao. Seriously ill patients at Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital were listed for transfer. The discharge at the Mae Klong dam in Kanchanaburi was increased on Wednesday, a decision that trades upstream storage for downstream load. Residents along the lower Mae Klong will see that water later in the week.

Bangkok's exposure is structural. The city sits on a flat delta, pumps into the Chao Phraya and the Gulf, and floods when the river, the canals and high tides peak together. The 15 districts still under water on Wednesday are mostly on the northern and eastern rim, where the canals drain more slowly than the commercial core. The 748 communities are a city-hall count of neighbourhoods, not a count of households. Set against the disaster agency's 329,000 Bangkok households, the two numbers describe the same rim in different units.

Myanmar has taken deaths from the same weather system, with reports of at least eight killed there and people missing in Tanintharyi. The Thai government has not published a combined toll. What it has published is a domestic map: 2,700 square kilometres, 40 dead, 15 Bangkok districts, and a crest still to come on the Bang Pakong.