BANGKOK - Residents of Bangkok braced for possible weekend flooding as the runoff from high water that devastated parts of central Thailand flowed toward the low-lying metropolis on Friday, where many downtown buildings were fortified with walls of sandbags.
While the government sought to reassure Bangkok's nine million people that the capital would be spared, it also sent sometimes confusing messages that raised anxieties and sent residents on shopping sprees to stockpile food, medicine and other essentials.
The worst floods in a half-century have submerged entire towns across Thailand's central plains, devastating rice crops and halting hundreds of factories. Some 8.2 million people in 61 of Thailand's 77 provinces have been affected by the flooding, which has killed 283 people since July.
