AlQa'dah 23, 1432, Oct 21, 2011, SPA -- Thailand's prime minister urged Bangkok's residents to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground Friday as the country's worst floods in half a century began seeping into the capital's outer districts, according to AP. The warning came one day after the government opened several key floodgates in a risky bid to let built-up water flow through the city's canals toward the sea. Authorities had said the canals could overflow, but it was not known to what degree. An Associated Press Television News team that visited the area on Friday saw water entering homes in Bangkok's northern Lak Si district, which is located along the capital's main Prapa canal. The water had risen to knee-level in some places but damage has so far been minor and not affected Bangkok's main business district. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters the Prapa canal was a big concern as water levels running through it had risen significantly overnight. "I would like to ask people in all districts of Bangkok to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground as a precaution," Yingluck said, while also urging people "not to panic." Authorities have said immense networks of sandbagged barriers could deteriorate under pressure from the water, since they were not designed as dams. Yingluck said Wednesday there were no other options to slow down the approaching water. Excessive rains and storms have wasted a vast swath of Asia this year, killing 745 people - a quarter of them children - in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, according to the United Nations. Thailand's government said Friday at least 342 deaths occurred here, mostly from drowning as floodwaters crept across this Southeast Asian nation since July. The floods have submerged land in about one-third of the country, leaving some towns under water more than six-feet-high (two-meters-high). The threat of floodwaters swamping glitzy downtown Bangkok and ruining treasured ancient palaces and chic boutiques along skyscraper-lined avenues has loomed large over this giant metropolis for weeks. No major damage has occurred yet, and life is mostly normal in most of the capital. But many Bangkokians are girding for the worst. -- SPA
