A torrential downpour in the early hours of Saturday morning triggered flash floods in various parts of Singapore.
Among the hardest hit areas were Braddell Road, Joo Chiat Terrace, Changi Road, Opera Estate, Bukit Timah and Delfi in Orchard Road.
It is the fourth time in recent months that heavy rain caused havoc to motorists and resulted in severe flooding.
Twitter user and Fly Entertainment CEO Irene Ang (@flyirene) commented, “My whole lane — Joo Chiat Terrace – and I heard Telok Kurau and Geylang also!” when asked by Yahoo! how badly affected her area was.
Irene Ang's Twitter comment, "Me and my neighbours' 10 houses sharing a 25meter lap pool now!"
courtesy of Twitter user @RJT
Twitter followers of @yahooSGnewsroom, Winnilicious and PohLeng, also said Tampines and homes in Opera Estate were also hit. Residents staying in Opera Estate awoke to screams from neighbours alerting them that flood waters were gushing into their homes, even as trash bins, buckets and shoes went floating down the road.
The Straits Times reported that the basement carpark in Tessarina Condominium and Cluny Court in the Bukit Timah area were submerged in knee-high waters.
Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel also had to evacuate 60 people in 20 different places, including passengers who were stuck in an SBS bus along Upper Thomson Road.
The same paper reported that shops along the area were badly damaged, with huge fridges overturned and smashed.
24-hour food haunt The Prata Shop was also badly hit, with thigh-high waters flooding the eatery and leaving about 50 customers stranded.
Owner Mr Ikbal Mohamed Ali, 55, was quoted as saying, “It’s the worst flood in our 18 years of business. Three of our refrigerators toppled over.”
The Delfi Orchard, which was hit by its worst flooding in 26 years last month, was again not spared.
One of the building’s tenants, Ms Shanta Sundarason, told the same paper, “So much for the ‘once in 50 years freak flood’ along Orchard Road. It would be nice for the problem to be addressed and dealt with, rather than a sweeping statement from the ministry.”
Beside Wheelock Place, fast food chain, Wendy’s, which is under renovation after incurring S$500,000 in damages from last month’s flood, was also submerged in waist-deep water.
By about 1pm, however, most of the floods in low-lying areas had receded.
Late last month, PM Lee warned Singaporeans that they cannot expect the island republic to be completely free of floods.
“I don’t think it is possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods,” he said, as torrential downpours are a part of the climate for “an island in the tropics”.
He also added, “We have to learn from these episodes, do post-mortems, find out what happened, and upgrade our infrastructure and systems.”
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Source: Fit To Post
