Sinking city, rising rage: Bangkok’s floods fuel fury over government inaction

As floodwaters surged from Bangkok’s drains, Fon’s car sank faster than her hopes of escaping the floods unscathed. She had bought it less than a month earlier.

“I woke up at 5am but it was too late,” the 24-year-old said, recalling her decision last weekend to wait until dawn to move her car to a nearby shopping centre. “My car was already submerged. I hadn’t even started making the payments and it’s gone.”

Relentless rain paralysed Thailand’s capital this September, dumping a month’s worth of precipitation on the city in just three days.

Bangkok, a city long plagued by a sinking feeling, went fully underwater. Not all of it, but enough of the city’s east and northeast to offer a terrifying teaser of what may lie ahead as this year’s “super” El Nino climate pattern intensifies into 2027.