BANGKOK (AP) — 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.

“Every time we go out, we bring as much food and supplies back as we can,” the 30-year-old mother of three said. “We have to help ourselves.”

As Thailand struggles to cope with the historic floods, holdouts like Thipawan’s family are frustrating authorities who say victims’ reluctance to leave behind their few possessions is complicating an already difficult relief effort.

Many of Bangkok’s government-run shelters sit largely empty, even as the submerged streets in some of the city’s hardest-hit areas are still bustling with a constant stream of people wading, floating and boating in and out.