ACTIVITY OF 16 OCTOBER 2011 

We met on 16 October our village headman at the rendez-vous point at the small Lotus Tesco in Bang Pa-In. The village counted since last week three deaths by drowning or electrocution. The water level in the village looked even higher than last week. Ayutthaya lost five big industrial estates; crocodile alarm has been given for the city and helicopters started to drop food. North of our area, governmental help was null; all help was purely civil – heart and minds. The Asian Highway is very heavily flooded (even more than last week) but now along a much longer stretch from Bang Pa-In to Bang Pahan. The road cracked up here and there. The water is in some places very deep, making the access very difficult.

In the early morning we received from the Game users Jayasoft Vision Co. Ltd.from Rayong around 150 complimentary personal packages and water packs, which we added to the 400+ we constituted already with the funds of the donors. Close to 600 personal packages were ready to be lifted off.

The latest plan was to go with four off-roads and a truck (replacing the light freight truck) promised to us by the government in order to deliver the 550+ packages (more than 5 ton of supplies) for the six mooban of Khayai. The evening before the government truck was suddenly called off and we encountered as thus a serious setback. We contacted friends at 21.30 Hr in order to find a solution, who initiated a contact in Ayutthaya. At 23.00 Hr we were contacted by government authorities from Ayutthaya who promised help.

Next morning - 16 October - we called back. The government team from the evening before was off-shift and the new shift was aware of nothing and did not help. We can only conclude - looking back the days prior - that the Thai Government is totally incapable and merely at the source of this dramatic event. We knew already since the month of May that all the rivers in Thailand were at an abnormal high level (we live on the Lopburi River which was more than one meter higher than the other years), but no alarm bells went off higher up – focus was on election – the greed for power.

To continue, we became desperate as we were in need of transport. “Ot” was ready to sacrifice his light freight hi-ace car, but we hesitated. The water on the highway was high, the current heavy and the exhaust of his car low. We send “Ot” to the garage to replace the horizontal exhaust of his light truck with a vertical one and continued to look for a solution. They say “when the need is high, a solution is nearby”.

The first elements of the Off-Road Group - the group of Hin Nun - arrived and we explained our problem. A few phone calls later from the off-road guys and soon we found six off-roads in front of our location. Two other off-roads were waiting at a pump station before Nava Nakhon, so we decided also to load Ot’s car, overload some off-roads and redistribute the loads at the pump station in Nava Nakhon.

We head off shortly before noon and after a nearly three hour arduous trip we arrived at Bang Pahan. We stopped before the bridge over the Lopburi River in order to deliver emergency packages to the villagers of mooban 1, 2, 3 and 6 living on the west bank of the river. It was like a movie; a bridge stocked with parked cars, large trucks trying to pass through the floods, hundreds of people using the bridge and parked cars as shelter and waiting for help and then in all this chaos eight off-roads loaded with supplies and the villagers of Khayai with tens of small boats jumping into this scene, to receive the supplies and others from adjacent villages trying to grasp a package as everybody was in need of food and water – Apocalypse Now!

After we helped out Khayai west bank we continued over the foaming Lopburi River to the other side to meet the villagers of the east bank. After having delivered the humanitarian aid, we went with three small motorboats (one boat of the district, one of the army and one boat from TV-Channel 3) to the community temple Wat Ton Satu, to deliver another bunch of packages and drink water packs, for the old people seeking shelter in the only not flooded building of the monastery, the vihan.

Close to 1700 Hr, we boated back to the high way over an immense lake, as all rivers became one, and where ever you looked there was only one thing - water … seas of water. Once back at the bridge, there was short consolidation. We drove back in the pitch black dark night, no lights, only the white curls of the waves battling the road in the beams of our head lights. The cars sometimes aquaplaning, sliding away, engulfed in a wall of water.  On the way back we were hampered by a large police force who, every hundred meter, blocked off the flooded highway filled with hundreds of cars and trucks seeking their way to safety through the water and dark, only because there was one motorcade coming down somewhere from the north. This was real Puppet Theater, a great show how the government only looks to them self. During our trip up, we saw at least 50 army trucks, with soldiers simply sleeping in the trucks; so many unused possibilities due to a total lack of governmental organization.

Finally we returned to Khlong 1 leaving behind us the chaos of cars, buses and trucks seeking for a dry place to park as the sea of water pours down towards Future Park, one of the biggest shopping malls of Thailand. The off-road guys & girls didn’t even want a single Baht for the use (and risk) of their cars and the consumption of fuel. Great people! The only thing we could do was invite them and all our helpers for food in the evening. We were even not allowed to pay for the diner! It was graciously offered to all by the director of Jayasoft Vision Co. Ltd., Khun Nui.

The whole week we had been working towards Sunday 16 October. So many people were great: all our donors be it in funds or in supplies; all the young people constituting the hundreds of packages, all the people helping to secure and moving the supplies (we took three doors out and cemented a wall to protect the storage); all who helped by looking for and buying the supplies, running from empty shelf to empty shelf; all the drivers, especially the Off-Roaders; our village headman and the people of Tambon Khayai; Many poor people, but with a very Great heart.

Thanks to our sponsors we could gather close to emergency packages for this day. We list here under all fund sponsors for 16 October:

Grp Jayasoft Vision Co. Ltd.         

Grp Fotolizm.com                 

Grp Dramatic Photography Society                  

Grp Game users Jayasoft Vision Co. Ltd. - Bangkok          

Grp Lizzy Michael - Hua Hin

Grp Ms Mee (PBS Printing, PB Paper, SDR Production)    

Ms Khwan Yun - Petchabun           

Mr/Ms Orlando & Wan De Laet - Sattahip          

Ms Lek - Korat            

Ms Lamai (Lek) (Switzerland)                  

Ms Somchai Sodaram - Chonburi            

Ms Somai Lamraeng - Chonburo             

Mr/Ms Markus & Daeng Rellstab - Hua Hin                 

Mr/Ms Serge & Aye Meyvaert (Belgium)            

Ms/Mr Napornphat Rujikajon - Papop Jampathet - Bangkok         

Ms Ama - Don Mueang         

Ms/Mr Khanittha Tasana & Joe Kümin (Switzerland)

Ms Kamolthip Intamon - Buriram   

Following groups donated complimentary supplies for 16 October:

Game users Jayasoft Vision Co. Ltd. - Rayong

Dramatic Photography Society

Group Napornphat Rujikajon/Papop & Ms Mee (PBS Printing, PB Paper, SDR Production)

Supplies bought  

Administrative & logistic costs: 

Total cost for this activity: 85,676 Baht