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A Thai woman struggles to walk as floodwater gushes through a marketplace in a riverside neighborhood near the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, on Oct. 27. Residents living on the heavily inundated outskirts of Bangkok fled waterlogged homes as floodwaters inched closer to the heart of the threatened Thai capital and foreign governments urged their citizens to avoid all but essential travel. Altaf Qadri/AP
A Thai man wades along chest-deep floodwaters in the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, on Oct. 27. Residents poured out of the Thai capital by bus, plane, and train, heeding government warnings to use a special five-day holiday to evacuate parts of the flood-threatened metropolis before a weekend deluge rushes through the city. Aaron Favila/AP
A man carries a surfboard through a flooded street in central Bangkok on Oct. 27. Thailand's prime minister said Bangkok was fighting the forces of nature as floodwaters threatened to break through dikes protecting the capital. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
A man wearing a life jacket smiles in floodwaters as floods advance into central Bangkok on Oct. 27. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Buddhist monks and other passengers travel on a bus through the flooded streets of central Bangkok on Oct. 27. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Residents wave for a truck to pick them up in a flooded street in central Bangkok on Oct. 27. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Residents and workers use sandbags to fortify barriers as floods advance from Chao Praya river into central Bangkok on Oct. 27. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Residents wade through floods in Rangsit district at the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand on Oct. 21. Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra urged Bangkok's residents to get ready to move their belongings to higher ground as the country's worst floods in half a century began seeping into the capital's outer districts. Aaron Favila/AP
A soldier pulls a boat with people evacuated from the isolated and flooded village of Kajee Nush in Pathum Thani province, in the outskirts of Bangkok, on Oct. 21. Thailand reported progress in diverting floodwater around its capital into the sea but the prime minister instructed troops to protect key buildings as her government struggled to contain the worst flooding in 50 years. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
People, evacuated from danger zones, pass the time under a bridge as floods cover their neighborhood in Pathum Thani province on the outskirts of Bangkok on Oct. 21. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
People carry their belongings as the floods reach their neighborhood in Pathum Thani province on Oct. 21. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
A boy sits on a raft during an evacuation from a flooded area at Pathum Thani province on Oct. 21. Sukree Sukplang/Reuters
Flood victims ride on a military truck through a flooded street in Bangkok on Oct. 21. Apichart Weerawong/AP
A Thai resident uses makeshift floats to cross flooded waters in Rangsit district on the outskirts of Bangkok, on Oct. 21. Aaron Favila/AP
Residents ride on a bulldozer to keep dry in the flooded Rangsit district on Oct. 21. Aaron Favila/AP
People walk on sandbags in the flooded area at Pathum Thani province on Oct. 21. Sukree Sukplang/Reuters
Motorists make their way through a partly flooding intersection in Bangkok on Oct. 21. Apichart Weerawong/AP
People pass the time next to a motorbike hanging from the beams of a bus stop above a flooded road in Pathum Thani province on Oct. 21. Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Workers join hands in making a flood barrier with sand bags as water rises in Bangkok on Oct. 21. Apichart Weerawong/AP
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Hundreds died and businesses lost billion in last year's floods, caused in part by overflow from dams filled to hedge against drought. This year, Thailand is testing different prevention measures.
Despite seeing his 60 acres of rice paddies covered in more than 10 feet of water for three months during late 2011, farmer Tawee Wongsan is sanguine about flooding this year. “I don't think there will be flooding this year,” he says. “The water in the big dams is not so high like last year.”
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