Thai flood holdouts slow relief effort

Thousands defy warnings to evacuate despite safety risks

BANGKOK - There's no food left for sale anywhere near Thipawan Pipatkul's house. In fact, there's not much of her house left above the surface now that the fetid black waters have poured in. Yet, like thousands in Bangkok's flood zones, she's ignoring government warnings to evacuate.

Instead, Thipawan and her husband are making a four-hour slog through stinking water that shines with oil and is littered with garbage as they head to dry ground in search of essentials. It is a grim routine they've repeated several times in the week since Thailand's worst floods in a half century turned their neighborhood near Don Muang Airport into an inland sea.