Terry, you are correct in noting by way of your post title that the flooding in some parts of Thailand was pretty bad, the worst in decades, according to many sources, but now things are normalizing. At the risk of misinterpreting Bowmouth's intent, I read his post as meaning that despite some isolated and unusual newsworthy events as listed in the government of Canada website, these are not a strong general reason to avoid visiting Thailand altogether.
We do rely on our governments to give us heads-up warnings before we embark on travels to distant lands, but we also need to be aware that they tend to couch their advice in "the sky is falling" terms so that no citizen can say that they were insufficiently protected by their leaders. For example, while it is true as noted in the Canadian government's travel advisory that the Samui airport was closed for several hours for weather reasons, I have been stuck in Toronto and Vancouver myself for hours due to weather, yet this, in my view, is not a reason to cross Canada off my list of places to visit (I love Vancouver, where I've been about 5 times already), nor should it be a good reason in itself for Canadians to avoid coming to Thailand. I have found in my experience in living on four continents in various countries that travel advisories issued by governments don't actually paint a true picture of any newsworthy situation but instead are alarmist and are expressed in the most dire terms. (This is also true of many news reports, but for different reasons.)
In response to the widespread flooding last month, Thais and others, including myself and some of my customers, have stepped up with donations to assist the victims rebuild their lives. Just the fact that there are specific relief efforts going out to those affected should be an indication that this natural disaster is outside the usual course of events here, and further, since things are being taken care of, it's fine to come visit us here in Thailand.
We look forward to welcoming you to paradise, Terry!
