Thai workers run in panic after they were told to evacuate as water started to break through the makeshift barriers made of sand bags at Nawa Nakhon industrial estate on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Apichart Weerawong / AP Photo

BANGKOK (AP) – The Thai capital needs 1.2 million sandbags to construct a 3.7-mile wall within 48 hours to keep encroaching floods from swamping into the city, Bangkok’s governor said Monday night. “Every second counts,” said Sukhumbhand Paribatra, whose call for city residents not to let down their guard posed a contrast to government statements in the morning that the flood threat to Bangkok appeared to be easing. Sukhumbhand said barriers had to be built up at several canals carrying overflow water from Pathum Thani province just north of Bangkok, where soldiers joined volunteers in trying to save the country’s oldest industrial estate from being inundated. […] Relentless monsoon rains that began in late July have affected two-thirds of the country, drowning agricultural land, swamping hundreds of factories and swallowing low-lying villages along the way. The nationwide death toll has risen rose to 307, mostly from drowning. Outside the capital, thousands of people remain displaced and hungry residents were struggling to survive in half-submerged towns. The military has been mobilized to help deliver relief supplies to stranded residents. The potential economic costs were underlined in the effort Monday to save the Nava Nakorn industrial estate in Pathum Thani, Thailand’s oldest factory park.

A Thai flood victim on a raft uses a paddle to collect relief supplies dropped from a Thai military helicopter in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday Oct. 17, 2011. Sakchai Lalit / AP

Shortly after noon, the government’s Flood Relief Operation Center ordered all factories there to halt work and prepare their workers for evacuation after water started to break through makeshift barriers erected over the past few days. Officials later said they managed to limit the flooding to under 10 percent of the estate, and had the situation under control. At least four other major industrial parks have been inundated, leaving upward of 100,000 workers idle and disrupting supply chains, especially in the automotive and electronic industries. The Labor Ministry said that more than 260,000 people had lost jobs and 6,533 businesses nationwide had to close due to floods in the period Oct. 10-12. Thailand’s Central Bank last week estimated that the total cost of the floods could be 100 billion baht ($3 billion). […] Western Digital issued a statement saying its other facilities in Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S. are fully operational, but that it “now expects that the flooding of its Thailand facilities, combined with flood damage to the company’s supply chain in Thailand, will have significant impact on the company’s overall operations and its ability to meet customer demand for its products in the December quarter.” The biggest blows were suffered by Honda and Toyota for whom Thailand is a major production base. Both have been forced to stop all work here due to flooding of their facilities. […]

Bangkok races to thwart approaching floods