Flood Photos: Water Submerges Thai Towns, Temples, Elephants

Submerged Elephant

Photograph by Sukree Sukplang, Reuters

A mahout—or elephant keeper—stands on an elephant in Thailand's flooded Ayutthaya Province on October 13.

Last week rising waters forced 15 elephants in the city of Ayutthaya to climb on top of their kraal, or enclosure, including 7 mothers with their babies, CNN reported.

Currently food can be brought to the elephants only in small quantities via rowboats, and Thai officials fear that the animals—which need large amounts of food and fresh water daily—will go hungry, according to CNN.

Published October 14, 2011

Flooded Street

Photograph by Chaiwat Subprasom, Reuters

People negotiate a flooded street in Ayutthaya Province on October 10.

Most shops in Ayutthaya are closed, and many people are stranded in their homes, CNN's Paula Hancocks reported from the scene.

"Doctors are patrolling the flooded areas in small boats and are making house calls to residents ... incapable of moving," Hancocks wrote on the news website.

"It's one of the worst hit areas in the country. Even if there are no more storms, one government estimate says it'll still take a month for the floodwaters to recede."

Published October 14, 2011

Awaiting Aid

Photograph by Damir Sagolj, Reuters

An elderly woman awaits aid in a shelter in the flooded village of Wat Sukran Tharam, in Thailand's Ayutthaya Province, on October 13.

As floodwaters threatened the Thai capital Bangkok, workers and soldiers raced to finish defensive walls around the city on the same day, according to Reuters.

Published October 14, 2011

Head Above Water

Photograph by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul, AFP/Getty Images

Villagers paddle past an inundated leaning Buddha statue in Ayutthaya Province on October 10.

About 61 of the Thailand's 76 provinces have been affected by the flood, which has impacted more than eight million people, according to CNN.

The flooding has also spread to other Southeast Asian countries, covering an area of more than 190,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers)—an area the size of Spain, CNN reported.

Published October 14, 2011

Monk Evacuation

Photograph by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul, AFP/Getty Images

Soldiers and rescue workers evacuate a Buddhist monk from a hospital in Ayutthaya Province on October 10.

Countrywide, the floods have inundated whole towns, destroying rice crops and halting hundreds of factories, according to the Washington Post.

Published October 14, 2011

Waterlogged

Photograph by Paula Bronstein, Getty Images

People sit in a flooded street of Ayutthaya, Thailand, on October 10.

Overall damage from the floods could cost the equivalent of more than two billion U.S. dollars—with the worst yet still possibly to come, CNN reported.

Published October 14, 2011