WNC Blog - PATHUM THANI, 20 October 2011 (IRIN) - The market in Ayutthaya where Arun Kaewan used to sell goods is now a river. The factory where her son used to work is a lake.
"We'll start our new lives from nothing," Kaewan, a 43-year-old mother-of-six said from the Thammasat University gym outside Bangkok, one of a string of evacuation centres hastily provided by authorities in recent weeks.
Kaewan is among 4,000 evacuees at the shelter - also at renewed flood risk - unsure how or when they will be able to rebuild their lives. Many come from the central province of Ayutthaya, where scores of industrial estates are now inundated.
More than 2.4 million people in Thailand are affected, with 28 provinces flooded, the government's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DPPM) reported on 20 October. So far 320 people have died and three are missing.
"When the water stops, there's going to be a lot of work to do helping people rebuild their lives and their livelihoods," Yuxue Xue, acting country resident representative for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Thailand, told IRIN on 20 October. "The floods in Thailand will [affect] the lives of everyone and will be felt for years to come."