Flooding

There are 3 main forms of flooding: Flooding from a dam, flooding from heavy precipitation, rise of sea level. For Thailand this year, they experienced the 1st and 2nd form. Flooding from a dam usually happens when either the dam breaks, or they had to release water from it. Due to political problems, the main reason why the flooding is that bad. Due to the yearly monsoons, heavy precipitation occurred, filling up the dam rapidly. The government was warned that they had to release some of the water, and that some parts of the country is going to experience minor flooding. They did not respond until they were forced to release huge amounts of water from the dam, causing total destruction almost all over the whole country. It was predicted that if they had released small amounts, over time the flood would not be as high, and wouldn't last that long.

Talking about the damage, this event is one of the worst, and the most damaging event in Thai history. The damage done, and the money needed to repair, and heal from this event is horrifying. The worst thing about this is that most factories are in the middle part of Thailand, which is the part affected by the flood the most. Most of the factories were flooded, and had to be temporary closed down. Only a few factories were lucky to survive the flood. Since the factories are down, the export and the money earn from it, manufactured goods, and other products were destroyed. This is a major problem, because money earned from export is one of the most valuable source of income for Thailand. Not only factories, but many of the rice fields and farms were also affected. Since rice is one of Thailand's greatest exports, and the source of food, Thailand is even more damaged. With the regions around Bangkok flooded, that was a wake up call for the government to do something. Instead, they waited to the last moment to build barricades, without any planning or consult from the scientists that worked on flooding. Again, they just made it worst. Scientist said, barricading was not a good option at all. Since water from the dam was massive, there is little to do, but to let it flood and spread the water out so it that it doesn't last that long. They also suggest methods, to improve the barricades, but again for the second time the methods and ideas were rejected and ignored. Finally, the flood reached Bangkok, where it did the worst. Businesses, schools, hospitals, tourism, more factories, the water and electricity stations, etc were damaged. Huge numbers of businesses either gets damaged or totally bankrupted. Schools were closed down, even some hospitals were affected. Tourism shoots straight down. The water station flooded, leading to temporary problems with access to clean water, some power stations were closed, the list continues. The very sad thing about this is that, more that 600 people died, due to electrocution, drowning, diseases, or from animals (crocodiles lose from the farm, snakes, centipedes, scorpions, etc).