© Surapol Promsaka na SakolnakornPrime minister Yingluck Shinawatra answers reporters' questions at Flood Relief Operations Command (Froc) at Don Mueang Airport.
Invoking the provisions of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act (2007) gives the prime minister full authority over state officials around the country. Those who refuse to follow orders can be prosecuted for negligence of duty. The prime minister becomes director of the relief operation.
Ms Yingluck said the move was necessary to streamline relief operations.
She has ordered the Defence Ministry and the army to oversee and protect key places including the Grand Palace, other palaces, Siriraj Hospital, flood barrier lines, utilities providers, and Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.
The government has struggled to channel the massive amount of water that has caused widespread flooding in the country's Central Plains, around the outskirts of Bangkok.
The floods are the worst in at least five decades. It was expected the flood would starting flowing into the Bangkok city area overnight. The government is struggling to channel as much the water as possible out to the sea through the sacrificed eastern and western outskirts of the capital.
Meanwhile efforts were under way to protect the Lat Krabang industrial estate after the Bangkradi industrial state in Pathum Thani was totally flooded today, with reports the water was about two metres deep.
Management staff and workers stranded by the sudden inundation were being evacuated.
It was the seventh industrial site to be inundated by floodwaters.
All schools run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in seven districts at risk of imminent flooding have been closed until further notice, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said.
MR Sukhumbhand said that a total of 102 schools in Don Mueang, Laksi, Kannayao, Lat Krabang, Min Buri, Klong Sam Wa, and Nong Chok will remain closed until the flood situation improves.
There is a possibility that BMA-run schools in Sai Mai district may also be ordered closed, depending on the flood, he said. Catch-up classes would be organised on weekends for the students, the governor added.
In Phitsanulok, the provincial irrigation office has drained water from northern runoff to fields in Bang Rakam district in a bid to delay the flow of water to downstream central provinces and Bangkok.
Bunying Khumsuphan, chief of Phitsanulok disaster prevention and mitigation office, said floodwater lin Bang Rakam district may recede slowly as the provincial irrigation office has drained water to paddy fields in the district, which is the water retention area.
The irrigation office will next week seek information from provincial authorities in Phichit and Nakhon Sawan about the floodwater level in their areas before draining water from the Yom River to the Nan River, said Mr Bunying.
Many Bangkok Post staff were today among those trying to save their homes.
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