BANGKOK, Thailand -- Floods have smothered much of Thailand, killing at least 317 people and prompting Bangkok to surround itself with makeshift walls, leaving those outside the perimeter to suffer from diverted water, reminiscent of medieval times when people dug moats and sealed off their fortress cities against plague, war and other calamities.
"We have been doing everything we can, but this is a big national crisis," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters on Wednesday (Oct. 19).
"I'm begging for mercy from the media here," she said, after heavy criticism for her poorly coordinated response to the floods.
Bangkok is now a virtual island under siege from a relentless flow of brown water, strewn with garbage and chemicals, after three months of widespread monsoon rains and increasingly swollen rivers, all flushing alongside the capital and draining into the nearby Gulf of Thailand.