Weather

The weather has taken a definite change of course this week. We had a cold front come through two days ago and it has been chilly ever since. The rain has stopped (mostly) so I think we can say that the monsoon is over for this year. With the change in weather has come my annual bout with allergies. I don't know what I am allergic to, but it strikes every year in the cool season and hot season. My Eustachian tubes swell shut, rendering me half deaf, my sinus plug, and I spend half the day clearing my throat of the drainage. The sound of me continually clearing my throat drives at least one of my coworkers half insane (he is a quarter insane to begin with). Fortunately, last year I discovered an antidote. A friend, who has much worse allergies than me, recommended Rhinocort (that is the brand name here in Thailand, I don't know how it is marketed in America). I snort it up each nostril once every morning and after a few days my symptoms mostly disappear. It is a great relief.

My sister asked me about the flooding situation here in Chiang Mai. Thailand is currently experiencing its worst flooding in fifty years. Chiang Mai did flood about 3 weeks ago, but only near the Ping River. It did not affect me, I am away from the river, although one teacher was trapped in her river front condo for about 4 days. The flood waters passed through Chiang Mai fairly rapidly. The problems now are in central Thailand and Bangkok. Huge areas of the central plains are inundated. Throughout the country over the last two months 315 people have died as a result of the floods. Thousands of farmers have lost their rice crops, and over a million chickens have drowned, as well as thousands of pigs and cows. Several hundred thousand homes have been flooded, with people forced to take shelter at schools, universities, and government facilities. About 4000 factories have flooded, which will lead to the loss of about 600,000 jobs, at least temporarily. Western Digital and Seagate Technologies (the two largest hard drive makers in the world) have suspended production. Honda and Toyota expect worldwide parts shortages, due to the shutdown of its plants in Thailand. So the situation is quite bad in those areas.

So far Bangkok has been spared major flooding. However, this has been accomplished by diverting water into already flooded provinces north and east of the capital. The government says it cannot afford to allow the capital to flood, but that fact is very convenient to the power elite of the country who live and own property in the capital. Northern Bangkok is not out of the woods yet. The army, and thousands of local volunteers are scrambling to reinforce sandbag dykes in the Rangsit and Sai Mai areas of the city. Fortunately, the bulk of the water will have passed out into the Gulf of Thailand by the end of the month, so recovery and rebuilding can begin.