BANGKOK— Monsoon thunder still rolls across Southeast Asia, and Bangkok is once again bracing for a major storm. Typhoon Kalmaegi, a Category 3 system spinning in the South China Sea with gusts up to 120 kilometres per hour, is tracking toward the Gulf of Thailand.
Heavy rain and dangerous flooding are likely in the capital on Friday. City officials, still dealing with the damage from flooding a few weeks ago, have activated emergency plans. Crews are stacking sandbags, priming pumps, and urging residents to get ready.
Forecasts paint a stark picture without hype. The Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) expects Kalmaegi, a name that means evergreen tree in Korean, to make landfall late Thursday near Chanthaburi and Rayong.
The storm should weaken to a tropical storm after landfall, then unload up to 300 millimetres of rain across Bangkok and nearby provinces over 48 hours from Friday morning.
TMD Director-General Niramon Niyomsilpa said the risk is high due to saturated ground and rivers already running high. Low-lying zones from Nonthaburi to Samut Prakan face flash floods. People are urged to lift valuables, stock up on supplies, and follow any evacuation orders.
Bangkok Flooding
The flood threat hangs over a city of 10 million, where glass towers, temples, and old canals sit side by side. Bangkok’s drainage network, a mix of historic klongs and newer culverts, struggles with rapid growth and concrete sprawl. Over the past decade, the city has sunk nearly 30 centimetres as groundwater use and rising seas take a toll. Rain that once passed without fuss now swamps streets and homes.
This new hit comes soon after October’s extreme downpour. In mid-October, a stalled low-pressure system collided with a strong monsoon burst. Bangkok took 200 millimetres of rain in one night, the most since the 2011 floods that displaced millions and cost Thailand about $45 billion.
Areas such as Bang Sue and Lat Krabang are filled like basins. Commuters were stranded on BTS Skytrain platforms. Suvarnabhumi International Airport closed for 12 hours. At least 12 people died on the outskirts from drowning and landslides. Losses passed 5 billion baht as goods spoiled, construction halted, and hospitals battled waterborne diseases like leptospirosis.
“I lost everything in that flood, my shop, my savings, my sense of safety,” said Somchai Boonmee, a 58-year-old street vendor at Chatuchak Market, as he sealed his stall with plastic on Tuesday. Like many small traders, he is racing the clock.
His cinderblock house in the north still smells of mildew despite constant drying. The October crisis shook faith in city planning and exposed sharp divides. Upscale condos in Sathorn pumped runoff into the Chao Phraya, while riverside shanties in Khlong Toei took the worst of it. Many homes on bamboo stilts buckled under dirty floodwater.
Typhoon Kalmaegi’s Terror
Kalmaegi’s wider trail adds to the unease. Fuelled by warm Philippine Sea waters and a La Niña pattern, the storm has already torn across other countries. It hit northern Luzon on 31 October as a super typhoon with 185 kph winds.
Cagayan’s rice fields and banana farms were flattened. PAGASA reports 47 dead and more than 1.2 million people displaced. Parts of Manila turned into rivers of debris. Power cuts lasted for days, and mudslides buried villages in Benguet.
By 2 November, the system reached central Vietnam. Torrents topping 500 millimetres in Hue drove the worst flooding in a decade. Hanoi’s old quarter went under. Bridges in the Mekong Delta were washed away.
Authorities report 28 deaths, thousands of homes destroyed, and farm losses near $200 million, with coffee and rice hit hard. Dr Tran Van Hung of Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said the storm spared little where it passed. Ferry routes across the Gulf of Thailand are shut, and fishing fleets in the east remain docked under gale warnings.
Bangkok’s reply looks like controlled urgency. Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who says the city has invested 10 billion baht in flood barriers since 2022, toured pumping stations on Wednesday with engineers checking diesel backups. He said lessons from October include more sensors, faster alerts, and community drills.
The city is rolling out 500 mobile floodgates and 200 extra rescue boats. Schools and government offices will close on Friday. The BMA app is sending live flood maps to phones. Critics call these steps short-term fixes for a system under strain. They point to clogged drains from litter and dense buildings on floodplains.
Environmental groups push for deeper action tied to climate shifts. Warmer seas feed stronger storms with more moisture, said Dr Suppakorn Chomnitraporn, a hydrologist at Chulalongkorn University. He argues Bangkok needs to restore wetlands, enforce green buffers, and invest in sea walls, or face rising costs and repeated loss.
By Thursday, thick grey clouds crowd the horizon. Tuk-tuks splash through growing puddles. Vendors sell ponchos. Families tape door seams, lift furniture, and whisper prayers. This city rose from a swampy delta 250 years ago, and it knows how to endure, but Kalmaegi will strain that grit.
Will the pumps keep pace, and will alerts reach those at risk in time? The coming rain will decide. For now, under a bruised sky, people wait and hope, calling on Phra Mae Thorani to wring the waters back into the earth.
