SingTel donates $80,000 to Thailand's flood
relief effort
Published on Oct 17, 2011
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has donated 2 million baht (S$82,251.41) to help those communities
affected by floods in Thailand, it said in a statement issued on Monday.
On Oct 14, Ms Aileen Tan, SingTel's group director of human resource, presented the cheque to Thailand's
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, in Bangkok.
Singaporeans in Bangkok safe, but precautions
still advisable: MFA
Published on Oct 17, 2011
All Singaporeans in flood-affected areas in Thailand who have registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) are
currently safe, the MFA said on Monday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
All Singaporeans in flood-affected areas in Thailand who have registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA) are currently safe, the MFA said on Monday.
The MFA also urged Singaporeans intending to travel to or in Thailand to register with MFA at
http://eregister.mfa.gov.sg. 'This will allow us to keep you updated on latest developments and contact you
should there be a need to do so,' the MFA said.
Travellers to Thailand were also urged to monitor local news and to heed the instructions of the local
authorities.
BACKG ROUN D STOR Y
Suggested websites to monitor news in Thailand:
www.thailandtourismupdate.comfor updates on the impact of flooding on popular tourist destinations.
Weather reports can be found in the Thai Meteorological Department's website, and updates on the flood situation are also
available at the website of Thailand's 24/7 Emergency Operations Centre.
The MFA also strongly urged travellers to buy comprehensive medical and travel insurance.
Singaporeans who require consular assistance should contact the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok or the MFA
Duty Office (24-hours) at:
+65 6379 8800 or +65 6379 8855,
Email: mfa_duty_officer@mfa.gov.sg
Singapore Embassy in Bangkok
Tel: +66-(2) 286-2111 (main line)
+66-(81) 844-3580 (after office hours)
Email: singemb_bkk@sgmfa.gov.sg
Flood threat to Thai capital eases, but 'crisis
not over yet'
Published on Oct 17, 2011
The flood threat to Thailand's capital appeared to have eased on Monday but officials warned the crisis was not over as military
and civilian authorities battled the worst inundations in decades. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
BANGKOK (AFP) - The flood threat to Thailand's capital appeared to have eased on Monday but officials
warned the crisis was not over as military and civilian authorities battled the worst inundations in decades.
Three months of heavy monsoon rains have deluged around one in three provinces in central and northern
Thailand, causing floods several metres deep in places and leaving around 300 people dead. Tens of thousands
of people have been forced to seek refuge in shelters as rising waters swallowed homes and businesses and
shut down industry.
Flood Relief Operation Command (FROC) said in a statement it was 'confident flood waters will not reach
Bangkok', with water being diverted through a complex system of rivers and canals around the city. It said the
situation was 'largely under control'.
But irrigation department director general Chalit Damrongsak warned that the situation remained critical as
water from low-lying areas north of Bangkok still needed to drain to the sea.
'It is not over,' he said when asked about the crisis.
The floods have dealt a heavy blow to Thailand's economy, disrupting production of cars, electronics and other
goods.
Water began leaking into the Navanakorn industrial estate in Pathum Thani, 45km from Bangkok, on Monday
as authorities battled to reinforce barriers.
Flood Relief Operation Command ordered an evacuation of the site, which houses over 200 factories for both
local and international firms.
Efforts to protect Thailand's capital have left areas outside the city to bear the brunt of the flooding.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has asked the country's military to take charge of the emergency response
in five of the kingdom's worst-hit provinces, including the low-lying historic city of Ayutthaya, which has been
under water for over a week.
Thai authorities said water levels were receding in Ayutthaya, which lies about 80km upriver of Bangkok and
has seen its ancient World Heritage temples and all five of its industrial estates swamped.
Agriculture minister Theera Wongsamut has said there were 'good signs' that the situation would improve after
a large amount of run-off water from the north flowed past Bangkok to the Gulf of Thailand on Saturday.
He added that water levels would be 'stable' from now on, easing fears over a seasonal high tide that is
expected to continue on Monday before subsiding and will make it harder for water to flow out to sea.
The next high tide period will be between October 28 and 30, officials said.
Conditions in Bangkok remained mostly normal and Suvarnabhumi Airport - the capital's main air hub, which
has floodwalls several metres high - was operating as usual.
Japanese automakers including Toyota have suspended production in the kingdom due to water damage to
facilities or a shortage of components.
The floods have also damaged 10 per cent of Thailand's rice paddy.
Japanese cities face growing radioactive ash,
troubles ahead
Published on Oct 17, 2011
In the Japanese city of Ohtawara, more than 100km south-west of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, 400 tonnes of
radioactive ash have piled up at a garbage incineration plant, which will run out of protected storage space in two weeks. -PHOTO: REUTERS
TOKYO (REUTERS) - In the Japanese city of Ohtawara, more than 100km south-west of the crippled
Fukushima nuclear plant, 400 tonnes of radioactive ash have piled up at a garbage incineration plant, which
will run out of protected storage space in two weeks.
Further south, the city of Kashiwa has been forced to temporarily shut a high-tech incinerator because its
advanced technology that minimises the amount of ash produced has the side-effect of boosting the
concentration of radiation.
Ohtawara and Kashiwa are just two of a growing number of municipalities across northern Japan that face
similar problems after the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, devastated by a huge March quake and
tsunami, began spewing radiation into the atmosphere in the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.
Although the government aims to bring the Fukushima crisis under control by December, researchers say that
problems arising from the radiation, scattered over mountains, rivers and residential areas, are set to persist for
years.
Argentina, Uruguay halt flights due to volcanic
ash
Published on Oct 17, 2011
Argentina and Uruguay cancelled flights at major airports due to dangerous ash clouds from neighbouring Chile's Puyehue
volcano. -- PHOTO: AFP
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina and Uruguay both suspended flights at major airports on Sunday due to
dangerous ash from neighbouring Chile's Puyehue volcano, which has disrupted global travel since it erupted
earlier this year.
Authorities suspended or cancelled numerous international flights serving the United States, Peru and Brazil at
the Ezeiza airport south of the capital, hours after shutting off Jorge Newbery airport in Buenos Aires.
'We need the ash cloud to pass' before the airlines operating out of the airport, which serves domestic and
regional flights, resume their operations, Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi told local television.
Argentina's LAN airline said in a statement that international as well as domestic flights were affected,
including routs to Mendoza on the steps of the Andes mountains toward the Chilean border, and Ushuaia in the
far south.
Mudslides, rain leave 70 dead in Central
America
Published on Oct 17, 2011
The death toll from rains and mudslides across Central America rose on Sunday to more than 70, including at least nine people
killed when the collapse of a hillside in El Salvador wiped out five dwellings, officials said. -- PHOTO: AP
SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - The death toll from rains and mudslides across Central America rose on Sunday to
more than 70, including at least nine people killed when the collapse of a hillside in El Salvador wiped out five
dwellings, officials said.
International highways have been washed out, villages isolated and thousands of families have lost homes and
crops in a region that the United Nations has classified as one of the most affected by climate change.
Hardest hit were Guatemala, where 28 people were reported dead and two others were missing, and El
Salvador, with at least 27 dead after five days of intense rains unleashed by a stubbornly persistent tropical
depression.
'We've got a very complicated situation,' said El Salvador's Environment Minister Herman Rosa Chavez, who
said 15cm of rain over a 12-hour period had made the country's mountainous terrain unstable.