Froc Forced To Move From Don Mueang

[Lite Beer]

FROC forced to move from Don Mueang

Chanikarn Poomhirun,

Jeerapong Prasertpolkrung,

Samatcha Hoonsara

The Nation on Sunday

Electricity and waterworks failures have forced the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) to evacuate its Don Mueang Airport headquarters and move into the Energy Complex Building.

FROC director and Justice Minister Pracha Promnok said that at 4am yesterday the deluge crashed into the walls. The water entered the electricity generator while the tap-water system could not operate.

The FROC officers were confused as they were abruptly told to move early in the morning. However, Pracha and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra later confirmed the order.

The move to the building, which houses the Energy Ministry and is also the PTT head office, was criticised as it is on the same road - Vibhavadi-Rangsit - and also possibly flooded.

Pracha refused to say if there would be another office move, or whether the government would announce more public holidays.

"We have to consider the situation daily. We cannot clearly predict," he said.

Pracha cited the threat from the Bang Bua Canal in Bang Khen district. The canal is part of the waterway and the surging water is likely to spill over Bangkok's 2.50-metre-high dykes with the likelihood of water levels reaching 2.65-metres due to the high tide.

"We cannot do anything with the embankment any more. If the sea tide makes the water level 2.65 metres high, that's 15 centimetres over [the dykes]. It's not that we just give in, we asked the BMA to pump the water out. This is nature and out of our control. Downpour [on Friday night] also worsened the situation," Pracha said, adding that water seeping through sewage pipes were also a problem.

Pracha said the worst crisis could be today or tomorrow when sea tides reach their highest levels.

On Wednesday, Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra told all the people to evacuate out of the Don Muang area. However, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the FROC would stay on.

Yingluck said yesterday she had eyed the Energy Complex Building as a back-up office but planned to keep the FROC at Don Muang Airport until the high-sea tide period passes tomorrow, to prevent interruption in the centre's work.

Both Yingluck and Pracha showed confidence in the Energy Complex Building's security.

High sandbag walls were laid around the building whose walls were also sealed with silicon to prevent water seeping. Besides setting up water pumps, nearby sewage pipes were also cleaned. People entering the building must use the steps to cross over the 50-centimetre-high sandbag walls at the entrance.

As entry to the building requires cards, reporters could not get into the new FROC office but had to wait on the first-floor lobby of the building.

-- The Nation 2011-10-30

[sirchai]

Edited October 30, 2011 by sirchai

[sirchai]

Pracha said the worst crisis could be today or tomorrow when sea tides reach their highest levels.

Or maybe a few weeks later...

[LindsayBKK]

Well I was a little surprised to see them move into Don Muang, as everybody knows it does flood there but somebody forgot to tell the FROC

I hope they don't move to Victory Monument and jinks me here where it's dry.

"What goes around comes around" จริง Yingluck ไม่รู้ เธอไม่?

Edited October 30, 2011 by LindsayBKK

[robokop]

Well I was a little surprised to see them move into Don Muang, as everybody knows it does flood there but somebody forgot to tell the FROC

I hope they don't move to Victory Monument and jinks me here where it's dry.

"What goes around comes around" จริง Yingluck ไม่รู้ เธอไม่?

First, this is the worse flooding rainy season in 50 years. Flooding started up North in July.

Don Muang acts as a control center and a distribution center for relief items to flood victims and more. Space is available there and in secure suroundings.

It would have been nice of you to say something about you being surprised about this move maybe one month ago, well before the airport had flood waters. It is easy to say what should have been done after a problem becomes a problem, but saying before is much harder. Please tell us how anyone could have seen this problem with this being the worse flood in 50 years?

[henlin]

Well I was a little surprised to see them move into Don Muang, as everybody knows it does flood there but somebody forgot to tell the FROC

I hope they don't move to Victory Monument and jinks me here where it's dry.

"What goes around comes around" จริง Yingluck ไม่รู้ เธอไม่?

First, this is the worse flooding rainy season in 50 years. Flooding started up North in July.

Don Muang acts as a control center and a distribution center for relief items to flood victims and more. Space is available there and in secure suroundings.

It would have been nice of you to say something about you being surprised about this move maybe one month ago, well before the airport had flood waters. It is easy to say what should have been done after a problem becomes a problem, but saying before is much harder. Please tell us how anyone could have seen this problem with this being the worse flood in 50 years?

I think that to be fair to all concerned, LindsayBKK's real point was that it seems somehow surprising that the government should set up a flood relief centre in a building with a known history of flooding. Your comments about it being the biggest in fifty years really only support his thinking...

H.

[whybother]

Maybe they should have moved the relief goods and evacuees out when the roads around it and the runways started flooding.

[plumeria]

Well I was a little surprised to see them move into Don Muang, as everybody knows it does flood there but somebody forgot to tell the FROC

I hope they don't move to Victory Monument and jinks me here where it's dry.

"What goes around comes around" จริง Yingluck ไม่รู้ เธอไม่?

Right. Shows the incompetence from the start.

If they don't even know a good place to set up the center, how in the world will they be able to help the rest of us non-experts?

Then to pull out the "this is nature" card is almost comical, except this is so serious.

For us who are not water and flood management experts, being amazed by forces of nature is not that surprising. Its not our job or career or area of expertise so a bit mysterious.

But FROC are supposed to know what they are doing.

What's wrong with this picture?

Some people on TVF do not want any linkage between flooding and the politics but that is just another way of supporting the puppet who got us in this mess.

Politics put the current ring of clowns in power. Politicians are calling the shots in every way regarding the floods.

Avoiding this in the future needs a political solution so competent people run water management and flood control and disaster prevention and minimization, not politicians.

Anyone who wants to get rid of the politics so "we can all work together" is simply putting spin on the situation.

While we work to help each other out of this mess we need to be talking about how and why it happened and how to avoid this in the future.

Hands can work while mouths talk. They are not mutually exclusive.

Please do NOT gag people trying clarify what happened and how to avoid any more of this fiasco.

I want to hear what everybody has to say, even if I don't agree with their opinion or perspective.

[bkk75]

How long have you long term expats have been living in Thailand? Once this flooding is over things will go back like it has never happened. What I have learned from working and living here is that people here in general tend to be reactive rather than proactive.

In order to keep this from happening again in the future you actually need a govt run by selfless competent people. When do you think this will happen? Perhaps another few generations later if Thailand is lucky enough.