Thailand flood

Thai Flood, October 2011

Thailand flood reaches Bangkok

Flood waters inundating Thailand north of Bangkok since July have made the journey south and reached the capital. The disaster is responsible for 400 deaths in Thailand and neighboring Cambodia and Vietnam. Thailand is the world's biggest rice exporter, but the floods have wiped out over a quarter of the country's crop. The government has declared a five-day holiday for the capital to allow residents time to evacuate. Damages could top six billion dollars in Thailand's worst flooding in 50 years. Collected here are images of the water as it moves south to Bangkok, and how residents there are dealing with the disaster. -- Lane Turner (43 photos total)

A woman holds a toddler as she walks through floodwaters in an area near the Chao Praya river in Bangkok on October 29, 2011. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

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Thai soldiers hold onto each other against the water flowing into a neighborhood after a wall was breached by the swollen Chao Phraya River in Bangkok on October 30, 2011. (Altaf Qadri/AP) #

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Thai residents make their way across a flooded street close to the rising waters of the Chao Phraya river on October 30, 2011 in Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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Thai residents are transported out of a flooded street close to the Chao Phraya river on October 30, 2011 in Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images) #

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A Thai couple push a cart by the empty shelves inside a supermarket whose suppliers were affected by flooding in Bangkok on October 29, 2011. (Andy Wong/AP) #

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Thai flood victims pack a crowded evacuation center on October 30, 2011 in Bangkok. Thousands of flood victims have been forced to take shelter at crowded evacuation centers around the capitol city. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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A Thai man wades along chest-deep floodwaters in the outskirts of Bangkok on October 27, 2011. (Aaron Favila/AP) #

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Houses in a residential area are submerged in the northern section of Bangkok on October 30, 2011. (Kyodo News/AP) #

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Thai workers and soldiers try to fix the breach at a temporary wall during high tide in Bangkok on October 30, 2011. (Aaron Favila/AP) #

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Flood victims watch TV at the Don Muang airport, which had become an evacuation center, on October 23, 2011 in Bangkok. It has since been evacuated. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images) #

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A man floats on a truck tire with supplies of beer as floods advance into central Bangkok on October 26, 2011. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters) #

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A Thai child carries a gas tank through floods in Rangsit district on the outskirts of Bangkok on October 21. Children make up around a quarter of the nearly 800 deaths the United Nations has tallied since July across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, which have been ravaged by some of the worst flooding in decades. Drownings are a huge unreported epidemic in Southeast Asia, killing an estimated 240,000 children up to 17 years old each year - mostly because the majority of kids in the region simply never learn to swim. (Aaron Favila/AP) #

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An elderly woman is evacuated along flooded streets near the Chao Phraya river on October 25, 2011 in Bangkok. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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Thai Dhammakaya monks push a truck, stuck in mud, as they work to fortify the flood gate at Khlong Rapi Pat on October 25, 2011 in Khlong Luang, on the outskirts of Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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A woman hangs onto a street sign in chest-deep water on October 24, 2011 in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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A man with bottles of water wades down a flooded street on October 24, 2011 in Bangbuathong, Thailand. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #

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People push their belongings through floodwaters during an evacuation from a flooded market in Bangkok October 24, 2011. (Sukree Sukplang/Reuters) #

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An exhausted man gets a boat ride to an evacuation center on a flooded street on October 23, 2011 in Bangbuathong, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #

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Thai Dhammakaya monks and volunteers work to fortify the flood gate made of sandbags and pipes at Klong Rapi Pat on October 23, 2011 in Klong Luang on the outskirts of Bangkok. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) #