How Our Community Was Spared From Flood

No doubt, you've heard about the great flood that troubled my host country, Thailand, these past few months. It already claimed many lives and properties.  And for us here in Bangkok, it is not over yet. Many areas are still under water. We are just thankful that our community was spared. 

Here are some photos to show how our community cope with the danger of flooding:

"Let me out of here! I want to play outside!"

Houses are barricaded with all kinds of construction materials. Some made temporary prevention but most residents have constructed fixed barriers.

Never mind the grammar. We all understood what our Thai neighbors
were trying to tell us..

I've never seen our neighborhood as united as we were during the flooding days. We all contributed to buy pumps and men and women helped guard the pump and kept the floodwater low.

Entrance to our village.

I can't tell how much we spent to prepare of the flood but it's worth it. We were safe and it gave us peace of mind and good sleeps.

A boy sleeping while "watching" over his sandbags for sale
at the corner of our street.  

For sure, Bangkok will never be the same again after this great flood. I've heard that there's now a talk on moving the capital city to a higher ground because Bangkok is sinking every year. Whether true or not, Bangkok needs to reevaluate its infrastructure and sewage system. Definitely there will be more electronic engineering jobs available for those who lost their jobs during the flood as as many businesses and industrial sites were inundated and were permanently closed.

As for our village, though they helped, we cannot rely on these portable pumps the next time it floods again. A permanent and reliable solution must be done.

Bracing for the Coming Flood

Home-made lamp using used cooking oil, salt,
 and  cotton buds.

You may have heard by now that many of Thailand's provinces are now submerged in flood water and major roads are impassable. Our host country is in big trouble and needing your prayers.

We live in the capital city, Bangkok, and a flash flood is expected to hit our area on Oct.16-18, 28-30. In times like this you can expect people to go panic-buying, preparing for the worst. A sandbag could almost compete with the price of rice!
 
Today, we went to buy more groceries and the grocery shelves were dramatically empty! Basic commodities like bottled water, noodles, canned goods and eggs are all sold-out. No more candles for sale so we made our own lamp. It is more likely that we would not have electricity.

We pray that the flood will not be as bad as in other provinces. Although the government is doing its best to save the capital city but still we were warned to prepare for the worst. So we did!

We didn't have homeschooling yesterday and today because we wanted to focus on preparing for on  coming  flood. We made cement barriers on doors, sealed all drains and possible water entry points, and moved things to higher ground.







Naomi and Zoe were such a big help! They were eager to finish the little construction we did.



Please pray for us because, as I am writing this post, it is starting to rain again.