Thailand Floods Foster Unity in Divided Country

Relief efforts are being stepped up as Thailand copes with its worst flooding in 50 years. Thais working at a key relief center say the disaster has helped foster a sense of national unity absent from the country’s recent years of political turbulence.

Thai officials remained confident Sunday that flood walls protecting Bangkok would hold.

But the floods, the worst in five decades, continue to take their toll. On Sunday, another major industrial estate in nearby Ayutthaya province was inundated with the loss of 60,000 jobs. This takes the toll to five estates to fall to the rising waters. Economists say the floods may cost the economy $5 billion and lower economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011.