Excerpt
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): Don Muang Airport was more river port today as floodwaters broke through protective barriers around the Thai capital's main domestic air hub.
MAN: Well, all the flights for today are canceled because apparently the water is coming here.
MARGARET WARNER: Bangkok's other airport, serving mainly international flights, remained open.
But Don Muang also faced a flood of people. It has become a refuge for thousands displaced, some under government edict, by the flooding. Today, officials ordered some to be moved to ease crowding. One displaced woman was near wit's end.
MALEE NIKHOMTHAT, Thailand (through translator): Because the authorities have ordered us to leave, we have to leave, as they cannot let us stay here. I don't have any money, so I have to leave this center. But this is really upsetting. So many people have come to this evacuation center and there is not enough food for everybody.
MARGARET WARNER: More than 350 people have died in Thailand over three months of monsoon and typhoon borne rain that have swamped much of Southeast Asia.
One-third of Thailand's provinces have been inundated, affecting millions of people. Bangkok, a city of nine million, remains largely dry. But the Chao Phraya River, which flows through the city, has flooded seven northern districts.
And anxiety is rising with the floodwaters. The airport closure was the latest blow to the Thai government's efforts to save the city from being swamped. The agency it created to manage the crisis, housed at Don Muang Airport, is now in danger itself of being submerged.
On Monday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra sought to calm nervous Thais and investors who've seen large swathes of Thailand's industrial zones flooded.
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