Bangkok floods hit 52,000 homes and force 4,900 into shelters

Flooding in Bangkok affected about 52,000 households and pushed nearly 4,900 people into shelters, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said on 27 September 2026. Days of heavy rain inundated homes and roads across the Thai capital, and authorities declared a flood disaster across the city on Saturday after almost 48 hours of heavy rain.e.vnexpress.net+1

The scale is new for residents who have lived through Bangkok's rainy season before. September is the peak of the rainy season in Thailand, but several Bangkok residents said this year seemed worse. The disaster declaration covers the whole capital, and the count of affected households gives a single figure for the damage that residents, city officials and the weather agency are now working against.

Why the flooding hit so hard

More than 330mm of rain fell in some areas of Bangkok between Thursday and Sunday, the weather agency said. That volume, falling over roughly four days, filled the city's network of canals faster than drainage could clear them. Water levels in the canals remained high on Sunday morning, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said, with authorities working to speed up drainage across the capital.

Scientists warn that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions. Bangkok sits on low-lying land threaded by canals, so rain that cannot drain quickly backs up into streets and ground floors. The mechanism is direct: sustained heavy rain raises canal levels, and high canal levels leave the city's roads and homes submerged.channelnewsasia.com

Kosin Nilset, a 44-year-old office worker who lives along the Premprachakorn canal on the outskirts of the capital, said his house was underwater for about 30 hours. He said on Sunday morning that the water level was higher than the 2011 flood. Widespread deluges across Thailand in 2011 killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes.

What residents reported along the canal

Kosin and his family lifted their belongings once they saw the water level was higher than the canal retaining wall, but their ground floor was still soaked. He said tap water and electricity were still working as he swept water out with a broom. Thidarat Silsuwan, 56, who lives alone in a partially submerged house along the same canal, said she had been sleeping on the table for two days and gave up on her refrigerator and washing machine.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said several roads were still flooded and warned residents in a Facebook Live post to avoid unnecessary travel. He visited a temporary shelter on Saturday night in a school in the Kheha Romklao area, where he said about 1,000 people were evacuated. Some rested on cots and benches with their dogs in hallways, while others lay on classroom floors.

Shelters, schools and empty shelves

Hundreds of city schools will be closed on Monday, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Some convenience stores had empty shelves over the weekend as residents bought essentials, and the prime minister's office asked the public to avoid panic-buying and warned that price gouging was a criminal offence. Pedestrians in rain ponchos waded knee-deep through a flooded grocery store parking lot in Bangkok's east.

More rain was forecast throughout Sunday for Bangkok and its surrounding provinces, but it would begin to taper off on Monday, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said. Chadchart said flooding should recede once the rain subsides, as city officials work to drain floodwaters as quickly as possible. Bangkok was the world's most-visited city in 2025, with an estimated 30.3 million international arrivals, according to Euromonitor International's Top 100 City Destinations Index.