BANGKOK — Barriers protecting Bangkok from Thailand’s worst floods in half a century held firm Sunday as the government said some water drenching provinces just north of the capital had begun receding.
That fueled hopes that the city of 9 million residents could escape unharmed. But outside the capital, thousands of people remained displaced, and hungry residents are struggling to survive in half-submerged towns.
On Sunday, the military rescued terrified civilians from the rooftops of flooded buildings in the swamped city of Ayutthaya, one of the country’s hardest-hit.
Bangkok has averted calamity so far thanks to a complex system of flood walls, canals, dikes and underground tunnels that are helping divert vast pools of runoff south into the Gulf of Thailand. But if any of the defenses fail, floodwaters could sweep through.
Ronnarong Wong-Ngern, a construction worker in northwestern Bangkok, said residents there still worry that things could go wrong.
“I can’t sleep at night,” Ronnarong, 38, said as he stood beside a wall of sandbags over a canal straddling one of the capital’s northernmost borders. “Whenever it rains, all the men here get up and start adding new sandbags to these walls.”
Seasonal rains that drench Southeast Asia annually have been extraordinarily severe this year, killing hundreds of people across the region. Thailand has been particularly affected. Nearly 300 people have died in the country so far.
Nationwide, the government says property damage and losses could total $3 billion or more.
The most affected provinces are just north of Bangkok, including Ayutthaya.
