Weather

[Guest fountainhall]

Egad, I wish you had. No camera in cellphone?

Sadly both in my backpack in the locker above - and the seat belt signs on!

[Guest fountainhall]

A brief update on the situation in central Bangkok.

 

Late yesterday afternoon, I did my usual check around the Rama 4, Saladaeng, upper Silom, Soi Convent, upper Sathorn and Suan Phlu route. No flooding and all activity as usual. There are, however, more defences up. The U Chu Liang Building (where HSBC is) on Rama 4 is now fully protected by an impressive ring of sandbags (what would happen, I wonder, if water gets down to their safe deposit room in the basement?). The entrance to the Dusit Thani on Silom is fully blocked off. Central Chidlom now has a one meter high double wall of sandbags. There is also a large pile of sandbags at the entrance to Soi 4, presumably ready to be spread across the opening if the floods do materialise. On Suan Phlu, a few more shops have erected meter high brick and cement walls - although precious few.

 

In TOPS in Central Chidlom, there was almost no bottled water, very few eggs or drinks in small containers. Chocolate biscuits were also in short supply! But still lots of fruit and vegetables.

[Guest thaiworthy]

I wonder, if water gets down to their safe deposit room in the basement?)

It means you're screwed. Banks do not have insurance for the contents of safe deposit boxes. If you think about it, how could they? The contents are unknown. I try to pick a box that is up high for this very reason. It if becomes flooded, the boxes nearer the ground will get wet first.

 

Then you have to worry about smoke damage if there's a fire. I have personal papers and letters in shrink wrapping to keep them protected.

 

You're never completely safe, you can only do the most you possibly can as a preventive measure.

[Guest]

Surely if the safety deposit box is big enough, it should be possible to put your most critical items within a waterproof plastic box?

[Guest thaiworthy]

Surely if the safety deposit box is big enough, it should be possible to put your most critical items within a waterproof plastic box?

It would have to be a specially-manufactured plastic box which is just the right size to fit inside and it would actually have to guarantee the contents to be waterproof, otherwise I have no confidence in its protection. And yes, that means a big expensive safe deposit box as well, which is usually found near the floor. This is why I prefer to shrink-wrap for the sake of reducing volume. I also have a small stamp collection. Air damages the contents prematurely, another reason to shrink-wrap.

[Rogie]

The Thai Government Public Relations Department has a webpage Advice to Help Cope with the Flooding

 

There is no shortage of advice on what to do when flood waters are on the horizon, and much of it involves normal common sense, but we have been relatively safe for so long that many of the details are easy to forget