Buddhist monks make their way on a side walk of a flooded road near Mahathat temple in Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
Buddhist monks make their way on a side walk of a flooded road near Mahathat temple in Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
Soldiers and volunteers carry sandbags to fortify flood barriers at Puranavad temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
Soldiers and volunteers pile up sandbags to fortify flood barriers at Puranavad temple on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
A Thai resident sits on a concrete barrier in floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A Thai family sits in front of their house surrounded by floodwaters in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. Floodwaters inched closer to a terminal at the Thai capital's second largest airport Wednesday, leading many who had sought refuge at a shelter there to flee amid warnings that parts of Bangkok could be inundated by up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
BANGKOK (AP) ? Bangkok residents jammed bus stations and highways on Wednesday to flee the flood-threatened Thai capital, while others built cement walls to protect their shops or homes from advancing waters surging from the country's flooded north.
"The amount of water is gigantic," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said. "Some water must spread into Bangkok areas but we will try to make it pass through as quickly as possible."
Some neighborhoods on the city's fringes were already experiencing waist-high flooding, but central areas remained dry.
Flood waters breached barriers protecting Bangkok's second largest airport on Tuesday, halting commercial flights and underlining the gravity of the Southeast Asian nation's deepening crisis, which has seen flood waters inundate a third of the country and kill 366 people over the last three months.
Yingluck's government declared a five-day public holiday on Tuesday in affected areas, including Bangkok, while the Education Ministry ordered schools to close until Nov. 7. Many anxious city residents were taking advantage of the holiday to leave the capital or prepare for a possible watery siege.
Panic buying of food and other necessities emptied the shelves of many supermarkets, and walls of sandbags or cinderblocks covered the entrances of many buildings.
Yingluck urged everyone in the capital to move their belongings to higher ground and warned that the city could be swamped if flood barriers at three key locations fail.
"If the three spots ... remain intact, the situation will improve. However, if we can't protect one of the spots, then the surrounding areas will be flooded. In the worst case, if we can't protect all three spots, all of Bangkok will be flooded," she said.
A day earlier, she warned that the floods could range from 4 inches to 5 feet (10 centimeters to 1.5 meters) deep in the capital.
Thousands of people heeded advice to evacuate to official shelters, including many fleeing for a second or third time after their original refuges were overtaken by the flooding.
The exodus included hundreds of inmates from three prisons ? many on death row ? who were taken by bus from Bangkok's northern suburbs to facilities in other provinces.
Residents living near Mahasawat Canal in western Bangkok evacuated on Wednesday after a rapid overnight rise in water.
"I decided to leave because the water came in very fast," said Jong Sonthimen, a 57-year-old factory cleaner. A boat carried her and two plastic garbage bags with her belongings to a Buddhist temple, where pickup trucks waited to take residents to a safer area.
Last week, Yingluck ordered key floodgates opened in Bangkok to help drain runoff through urban canals to the sea, but there is great concern that rising tides in the Gulf of Thailand this weekend could slow critical outflows and flood the city.
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