I've followed the flooding closely in Thailand since late August, because I usually go there a couple times a year for work. I was scheduled to fly there twice last month, and both times my trip was cancelled about three hours before my flight.

The company I go to was completely flooded, so almost everything is a complete loss. Unfortunately I have not been able to contact any of the people I know over there, but I've heard through the grapevine that many of their homes were flooded also, and because of the severity of the situation most people probably will not be returning to work for some time. Just from the few pictures I've seen of places i recognize, I can imagine the kind of damage that's occured. In some areas the water was close to reaching the second floors.

In hindsight, the flooding in Bangkok shouldn't have been a surprise, the city of Ayutthaya (north of Bangkok) flooded about a week earlier and all that water comes down the Chao Praya river and was expected to hit Bangkok during high tide in the middle of October, exactly during the time I was supposed to arrive. Coupled with the weather forecast that was predicting two straight weeks of rain, it didn't surprise me at all when I saw how bad it got by the third week of October.