Picking up the pieces Residents of deluge-hit houses are coming home, but life for them may never be the same

Wake of the flood 

Residents of Chaiyapruek housing estate in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district sift through piles of belongings from their damaged houses as they recover from the floods that swamped the district for more than a month. 

Residents returning home after the floods lack the confidence to restore their houses fully to their original states.

Many residents of Chaiyapruek and Cholada housing estates in Bang Bua Thong district of Nonthaburi began the lengthy clean-up process after the floods receded last week.

Bakery instructor Nirawan Sribunmee, 48, and her three sons slowly combed through their belongings sorting out items not damaged by the flood.

She had moved into the new house barely two months before the floods hit. She said she was still somewhat lucky as she had not yet moved all her belongings to the new house and she was able to save much of her furniture, including a 400,000-baht grand piano.

But her newly decorated garden and her prized kitchen were badly hit. The floodwater killed all of her plants and ruined the built-in cabinets, wooden furnishings, stove, oven and electrical goods in the kitchen.

Her worst problem, however, was a mould colony growing on all the walls and many other surfaces.

Faced with extensive repairs and uncertainty over the next potential flood, Ms Nirawan had decided not to install anything but the bare necessities on the ground floor.

"I won't be buying too many things to put there, just the things to get you by and that's it," she said.

Ukos Khongsompong, 45, an an employee at PTT Exploration and Production Plc, said the damage to his home was more severe due to the fact that his family has been in the housing estate for more than 10 years and they did not have a chance to save anything from the flooding.

He said they were caught off-guard because of several factors. First, they had never suffered a flood anywhere near this magnitude. Second, they thought the estate's defences would hold. 

Lastly, they were forced to move closer to work when the main road in front of the estate was flooded, making it inaccessible to smaller vehicles. 

During his absence, mould wreaked havoc on Mr Ukos' house and his belongings to the extent that he had to hire a professional cleaning crew to clean the building. 

He also decided to throw away all his affected belongings, even if they had been cleaned, to ensure the mould threat was completely eradicated.

Echoing the thoughts of many flood victims, Mr Ukos has decided not to put anything unnecessary on the ground floor again.

"I am going to leave it empty," he said. "We would like to wait a year to see how it goes. If it does flood again, we would likely knock down the whole house and build a stilt house instead."

He said the flooding makes it hard to restore the house with confidence, and selling is also not an option because the price would be lower now. 

He said to adapt and learn how to live with the water is the best approach and he believes a stilt house would be a worthwhile one-time investment.

He thanked the management of the estate for posting flood updates online as well as guarding abandoned homes.