Tens of thousands flee Bangkok fearing breach of river banks

Traffic clogged roads out of the Thai capital on Friday as tens of thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide expected to worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn their citizens to stay away.
Bangkok's Chao Phraya River is expected to burst its banks over the weekend during the unusually high tide that begins on Friday, causing some flooding in nearby areas. Buildings across Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some vulnerable streets were nearly deserted.
Thailand's worst floods in half a century, caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain, have killed 377 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.2 million, until now mostly in the north and central provinces.
"I want people to accept the problem, which will last for at least two months because a lot of water is expected to arrive," Defence Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa told reporters. "We'll try to fix the situation."
Television footage showed cars and trucks bumper-to-bumper leaving the city but the traffic department said it could not put an exact figure on the size of Bangkok's exodus because much of its monitoring equipment was under water. Airport and bus departure lounges were also packed.
The government scrapped a proposal to dig channels into some roads in eastern Bangkok to drain water, an idea backed by the chairman of the Thailand unit of Toyota Motor Corp whose factories have been badly flooded.
Authorities warned residents near the Chao Phraya they could face rising waters. Roads around the Grand Palace, a top tourist attraction, were already partially flooded along with some streets in densely populated Chinatown.
A two-metre (6 1/2-ft) snake was caught by a taxi driver in front of the Grand Palace, an area normally bustling with tourists. Residents have also had to contend with crocodiles escaping from flooded farms. While many of the inner-city streets of Bangkok remained dry, many suburbs toiled in surging floodwaters.
In a shantytown in Bang Phlad district, small wooden homes were knee-deep in foul-smelling water with rubbish floating on its surface. Residents carried belongings above their heads, struggling against the current of water pumped back out to the nearby river.
In Nonthaburi province bordering Bangkok, walls of sandbags collapsed under the weight of surging floodwaters. A policeman dressed in shorts, flip-flops and a vest directed traffic with a megaphone as water gushed out of drains.
Cars with wheels submerged crawled at a snail's pace along the road and exhausted drivers were seen pushing stalled tuk-tuks - Thailand's ubiquitous three-wheel, open-air taxis- through the water. Yingluck's government declared a five-day holiday from Thursday to allow people to leave. Roads out of the city to the flood-free south were jammed. Many were heading for the seaside town of Hua Hin and the eastern resort city of Pattaya, where hotel rooms and homes to rent were scarce.
Bangkok, a low-lying city of at least 12 million that accounts for 41 percent of Thailand's $319 billion economy, is in danger from run-off water from the north coinciding with the high tide on the Chao Phraya, already at a record high level.