Latest:
More pictures of Wednesday’s flood on Yahoo.
From this website:
Most prominent area that suffered from this heavy rainfall is known as Orchard Road and intersection of Scotts Road and Orchard Road is showing a scene of a river as height of rain water in this area is around half of meter. Shops of Hermes and Starbucks affected a lot with this rain water as Liat Towers’ basement also suffered with it and a lot of water is still seen there.
Several vehicles along with many passengers can still be seen struck up on the roads as they can not be moved due to heavy rain water. Traffic lights are also not working in many intersections of the affected area. According to the latest reports, shops located at Bukit Timah and Serene Centre also affected.
Though Orchard Road is considered as the most affected but several other areas of central Singapore also affected with this heavy rainfall in which Veerasamy Road, Kheam Hock Road, Kings Road, Fourth Avenue and Coronation Road West are included.
Around 100 mm rainfall has been recorded today on Wednesday between 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Singaporewhich is not a usual rainfall as average rainfall in the month of June is considered as 40 mm.
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From the Straits Times:
A tree fell near the Buyong Road exit of the Central Expressway Tunnel, towards Ayer Rajah Expressway, blocking traffic across three lanes. The CTE was closed as a result, partly to prevent traffic from going into Orchard Road.
Other parts of central Singapore, including Coronation Road West, Fourth Avenue, Kings Road, Kheam Hock Road and Veerasamy Road were also affected, bringing traffic to a crawl.
PUB, in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, said almost 100 mm of rain fell within a two-hour period from about 9 am to 11 am. ‘The amount of rainfall is approximately more than 60 per cent of the average monthly rainfall for June,’ it said.
PUB, Traffic Police and SCDF officers were at the various sites providing help to motorists and directing traffic. The PUB advises the public to exercise caution as flash floods may still occur in the event of heavy storms. The cause of the flood is still being investigated.
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TOC’s original report this morning:
Postings on social networking site Facebook are saying that Orchard Road is flooded. The incident has also been reported by the Today newspaper’s Twitter feeds.
Netizens are saying that vehicles have broken down and that firefighters have been seen in the area.
In November 2009, parts of Bukit Timah was submerged, causing “flood waters [to rise] knee-high, partially submerging ground-floor buildings and cars and causing untold damage.” (Straits Times)
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said then, “What happened was very unusual… The intensity was tremendous.”
The minister called it a “freak” event which happens “once in 50 years”.
“It is not possible… to plan for every event. Thursday’s weather… occurs once in 50 years,” he said. “If we design for the largest rainfall or highest tide, then we are going to have huge canals in Singapore.” (Asia One)
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Visit TOC’s Facebook page for more.
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Read also: “Why Orchard Road will never flood” by The New Paper (1999).
Here is a picture from http://yfrog.com/ju3jij of this morning’s flood at Orchard Road.
Videos of the deluge:
The funny side, by Chia Han Keong:
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RW
Not everyone shares your hatred for lky/lhl/famiLEE and sees the need to rant on about them on every issue in every post. Others just read articles to be better informed citizens and prefer to be constructively critical.
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off curse not EVERY1 xcept the 2 of you,
rw/myviews…
now imagined this realife scenerio again..
if you were the shopkeeper (even leekuanyew/sons hav NO balls to start a buisness with their owned money) with ALL your merchandised destroyed with this freak accident and hav a ZERO payout
and on top of it you jus bought a brand new bmw @ a monthLEE instatlment of $313 nia..with 9 more years to settle..
how on earth are you goin to brin YOUR mother to orchard road to shop a nice gift for her boyfriend YOU father on father day?
how much money you hav in your savin$ right now to start ALL over again?
leekuanyew/daughterinlaw hav no problemo restart any business @ all..she jus used YOUR cpf$ AGAIN…
now is this scenerio good enough? or am i jus rantin? if you are a BRAVE man..try resignnin from your permanet secretary job and start YOUR owned business..even the former fallens pap ministers couldn’t start any businesses with a PROFIT$..xcept multilevelsmarketin$
“Blocked drain blamed for Orchard Road Flood” reads today’s ST headline. It PAP talk what does that mean?
The blame goes to the people, who through their littering habits have caused such a disater, resulting in millions of dollars in loses.
Remedial action. Increase the fine for littering, especially those who throw things inti drains and canals.
The government cannot do eerything, people must take responsibility and be vigilant.
Bravo
Everyone on the internet is asking why did part of a drain cause the flood, that are things so simple?
wake up. the answer’s all around you.
5 years ago, we had X amount of rubbish thrown into the drains.
now, 5 years later, we have Y amount of rubbish thrown into drains.
no prizes for guessing what Y is.
Y = the original X, multipled by a sudden increase in population of 20%, multipled by Z
Z = the propensity for this new population to throw things into drains. it was recently reported that Z was higher nowadays because the new population practises High Z Behaviour in their home countries.
the answer is as simple as X, Y and Z.
hmmm, with so much water how many pails does 1 need? 1 pool already need ?? number of pails…
… IIRC, there was talk about bulding underground cities, with this flood i not sure if its a good idea…
… weather anormally, should not be used as an excuse. on the flip side, is S’pore economic success a freak result? if so, no one should take credit for it, no?
… the word “freak” seems to be used more frequently this few years. there seems to be an increase in high profile mishaps, incidents, goof-ups in “world class” S’pore.
the decling level of social, economic, etc stability may contribute to the decline in birthrates. not forgetting the increase pressures on ther job front.
hmmm… maybe the low birthrates are due to couples fearing giving birth to freaks?
such a major freak flood does give preggy mums, couples with prams, &/or loved 1s who may have difficulty walking something more to worry about, no?
how many prams are not above knee-high (for example)?
ponder, ponder….
mice is nice 18 June 2010
hmmm, with so much water how many pails does 1 need? 1 pool already need ?? number of pails…
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eer..arrh…ugmm..pardoned my ignorances for a moment…lets say i managed to roped in 10 maids from lucky plaza fpinoy standby maid agency with 10 pails donated by takashimaya inc….
i trainned the 10 maids on the job to collect the flood water pale via pale
where do the maids pour away the water?
in the FLOODED gent or female toilets?
last but not least..accordin to lucky plaza managment rules each entry is $0.20cents…so who is payin the $0.20cents levies? yacoob ibrahim as well? sometime 1 must hav the ability to think liked the $100,000/month minister
yacoob/jacob or whatever kerb he already CHOKED…
@iamanavycommandos 19 June 2010
Dun be daft, of course you tell the 10 maids to take the pailed water outside and throw into the drains where it will flow to the (choked) culvert.
@mice is nice 18 June 2010
Maybe the prams can be make of fibre glass and shaped at bottom like a boat hull so that they can float on water. Baby poo-poo also contained inside so doesn’t leak to the surroundings contributing to “nature” that choke the culvert. This is where our esteemed scholars (maybe the ones that designed the culvert & its maintenance) can redeem themselves with some R&D works….
iamanavycommandos on 19 June 2010,
but your 10 maids are only paid so little, i am sure the well paid top teir civil can clear the water that many times faster than your maids can you know. you use pails they use high tech suckers (ERP gantries for drains?) to suck up all the water from the rain. i just hope no one drop wallets into the pool of teh-C. if not will get blamed for choking up the culverts.
$0.20 for toilet entry at Lucky Plaza? hmmm, wasn’t there a rat problem somewhere near Center Point reported not too long ago? dump there to drown the rats? got enough water for 2nd & 3rd wave woh….
theforgottongeneration on 19 June 2010,
wah, your idea very good (but sounds expensive), looks like oni elites can afford. then they will blame the average Joes/Janes for not taking care of their tiny tots if they “sipped” some of the flood waters.
S’poreans like me should not complain too much, wait an ol’ man will say i am champion complainer. better leave the complaining to foreigners, especially foreign news agencies. this is what you get even after paying civil servants out of this world salaries.
public transport- privatised,
energy market- privatised,
army- partially privatised (catering, firing range operation)
national security- everyone must play his/her part, so cannot blame police har,
public housing- got private proxy to ‘chomp’ entire blocks to “VIP” foreigners working in IRs.
PUB- ?
TOC should also add a link to this article:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_523475.html
(May 06 2010)
“CONSULTING engineers Meinhardt faced major headaches as they designed 313@Somerset in Orchard Road. They had to divert 10-metre wide Stamford Canal …
Meinhardt has won the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Design and Engineering Safety Excellence Awards (Desea).”
The investigation has revealed that the flood was caused by an unexpected heavy storm and a good drainage system choked by debris and rubbish which were irresponsibly discarded into the canals. Lesson learnt : a good system will still fail if the public does not act responsibly and put in efforts in maintaining public places.
#My Views, 21 June 2010
Wha, everything you write reminds me of Paulus at Stalingrad – keep believing your masters even in the face of truth & facts. Eventually it will lead to more mistakes, and in Paulus’ case, the entire 6th Army. Sure, it is important not to undermine the authorities unnecessarily, but to the point of horseshit licking is ridiculous.
The storm may be unusually heavy, but it is not the heaviest on record nor something the current drainage couldn’t handle (if maintained as intended) – it is just a face-saving way which everyone can be gracious to but you shouldn’t rub it into our faces. Did PUB revealed what are the debris choking the culvert? How do you know it was something irresponsibly discarded? In fact PUB earlier mentioned it COULD be branches brought down by the heavy rainfall. So who is irresponsible then – nature?
The public can do its part, but don’t you question why there wasn’t some sort of entrapment, metal meshes, grilles, etc… before the culvert? Do you mean that if an elephant drop dead and got washed by the heavy rain to the culvert, then it is still the public’ fault? It is basic to include a series of traps to EFFECTIVELY catch any debris that can cause a choke; maybe such traps are there, maybe some were stolen (aka Micheal Fay style?), maybe some were not implemented, maybe they were simply not maintained for 3-6 months. Why keep blaming the public then?
Lesson learnt: smoked the public once; don’t smoke a second time in less than a year. Unless of course you never heard of Stalingrad ’42.
They can’t even plan successfully for flood control in a small geographic area but intending on creating an underground city living environment where sudden flash floods leave no room for survival escape possibility for childre, sick, frail and weak -even able-bodied perhaps.
How ridiculous can this farce gets down to? Singaporeans, vote wisely – your lives, not just your future, depend on it.
I was in the vicinity of Far East Plaza on Jun 16 2010. I noticed during the flood, there was not a single car on the opposite side of the road due to the flood at Wheellock junction, whilst the road heading towards Far East/Paterson were so jammed up it was impossible for any vehicle to make any headway so amny of us have to leave the bus to travel in the rain to our respective destination. This is because the whole stretch of road along far east to Marriott Hotel is fenced up in the middle. When there is a jam, vehicles cannot opt to make u-turn back to take an alternative route resulting in chaotic traffic congestion. I don’t have a driving licence but I wonder is it possible for LTA to correct the situation by making emergency small gate (only to be operated by the traffic police) in the dividing fence to allow for u-turn when an emergency like the flood arise so as to ease traffic congestion?
My Views 21 June 2010 The investigation has revealed that the flood was caused by an unexpected heavy storm and a good drainage system choked by debris and rubbish
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and leekuanyew bein in charged of orchard road beside bein a longterm inhoused resident wasn’t informed of such ^CARELESNESS^ irresponsible act of public defacement..meanwhile envoirment officers are still on fullforce sittin in bustop/underpass/open spaces on the lookout for irresponsible smokers($200 fines/head is lucrative)
My Views, 21 June 2010
wah, there are many unexpected things in life, you must have not heard of such a thing as weather forecast, earthquake warning system, lol…
being an effluent nation, S’pore can well afford a more robust system to deal with weather anormaly. a system cannot be good enough if simple human errors can ccontribute to its failure.
if investigation did reveal anything, its the complacency of the relevent agencies, plain & simple.
British Journalist Jeremy Clarkson broadcast an idea a few years back for ‘Chewing Gum Trees’ on the streets of Britain. Wooden poles at regular intervals along all main streets to stick your gum to, designed to lower the millions of pounds the govt. spends each year using lasers to remove chewing gum stuck to the walk-paths.
This wouldn’t be a bad idea in Singapore drains. Keep the original culvert idea, but install simple hydraulic arms next to them that periodically crush debris into blocks, push it up to a hole where another arm will push it into a separate tank that gets emptied along with the trash cans. Take into consideration the very few parts of Singapore that are prone to flooding and the cost to install is relatively cheap compared to the millions of dollars in damages (or man-power to clear the drains manually).
Mike.
@Mike, 23 June 2010
Interesting idea but you obviously don’t understand the mentality here. Previously I mentioned productivity and using mechanized garbage collectors & compressors in place of cheap FWs for jobs Singaporeans supposedly shunted.
Let’s run down the cost. Culvert previously maintained every 3-6 months (by PUB admission), probably using say 3-4 FWs (each salaried at $1K) to manually clear debris in 1 day. Cost therefore = $175 every 6 months or $350 annually. There is no cost if things screwed up, not even a cheap ‘Sorry’. Then, how cost-attractive is your proposal compared to current system?
Per our labor chief, it is not about Productivity, nor feasibility, nor what works best. It is about being cheapskate – by way of Cheaper, Better, Faster. Screaming slogans is definitely cheaper than putting money where the mouth is. Of course they kinda surged on their own salaries though. Very expensive slogans, lah.
Is Orchard Road Flood due to the buiilding of 313@ Somerset on Somerset Road?
mrt tunnel digging beside the KK hospital is causing all these orchard road flooding. bukit timah water where got place to flow towards the sea? You know we know it. But everyone keep quiet dare not say.
A bigger than usual salary makes a person bad for his duties. Such astronomical salaries paid to Ministers and civil servants down the line make them raving mad.
To safeguard this largesse forever, they harness all State Institutions to do their bidding. The most effective in protecting their interests is the ISD for mafia type repression and the judges for bankrupting those who talk bad about them. Even elite lawyers firms are into the game as they also can commandeer the State’s standing army of Police and judges to get things done for their political friends and masters.
These chaps are beyond things like mere floods.