Series Of Flash Floods In Singapore

Series Of Flash Floods In Singapore: 2010 & 2011

A Reminder to myself regarding the series of flash floods that hits Singapore. An article from a site included below. This is another part of my "postpone" entries among the rest of "uncomplete" ones. Quite a few left remaining for me to post.

The 2010-2011 Singapore floods were a series of flash floods that hit various areas in Singapore. The floods were due to having a higher than average rainfall. The death toll in the city state stands at three people. One victim died when a tree fell on a public bus injuring another two people. The other victim died on 20 July after a storm brought down a tree on the victim's car, killing him instantly.

2010

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Heavy rains caused flooding in Singapore's central shopping district and snarled traffic throughout the island. Shopping Malls along Orchard Road like Lucky Plaza and Liat Towers were affected by the flood.

The flood had caused some shopping mall and car park basements to be submerged in the water. Rescuers had to pull out about 70 passengers from cars and buses, as flooding shut down Orchard Road, which is lined with high-end shopping malls and tourist attractions. No one was injured.

According to the Public Utilities Board (PUB), about 4 inches (100 millimeters) of rain fell in two hours Wednesday morning, equivalent to around 60 percent of the average monthly rainfall for June. Water rose above the tyres of stalled cars on Orchard.

On 18 June, the PUB, in a press conference, revealed its findings that the drainage system under Orchard Road, the Stamford Canal, was choked. The culvert, which was to drain water into two parallel channels, had one of the channels choked with debris, and water flowed through only one channel.

When a second rainstorm on the same morning came, the canal, unable to drain off excess water, overflowed and gushed water up to the surface and caused the flooding.

To prevent future floods, PUB spent $25,000 to install five debris-trapping grates at Stamford Canal. These zig-zag grates are meant to catch debris without stopping the flow of water, thus preventing the canal from being choked again. The new grates are installed at Camp Road, Napier Road near Minden Road, Nassim Road, Grange Road and Tanglin Road.

Friday, 25 June 2010

A torrential downpour early Friday morning triggered flash floods across the island. Areas like Upper Thomson Road, Bugis and Jalan Boon Lay were the hardest hit. Heavy rain was also reported in Changi, Eunos, Jurong East, Tampines and Sims Avenue.

The flood also caused morning rush hour traffic to come to a virtual standstill on all major expressways in Singapore.

Dissipating within a half-hour, however, this flood was short-lived, as compared to the earlier flooding of Orchard Road.

Social media and micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter were awash with flood photos and users exchanging pictures.

It was reported that the heavy downpour on Friday Morning was equivalent to about 60 percent of the average monthly rainfall for June.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Heavy rain caused flooding at Paya Lebar and other parts of Singapore. The hardest hit areas were MacPherson Road and Upper Paya Lebar (known as Tai Seng). The flood caused traffic jams throughout the area of Paya Lebar

Saturday, 17 July 2010

A torrential downpour, partially caused by Typhoon Conson, 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, Bukit Timah and Delfi in Orchard Road. It was the second time in serveral months where heavy rain had caused inconveniences to motorists and resulted in severe flooding.

Most of the floods in low-lying areas managed to recede at around 1pm

Wednesday, 8 Sep 2010

Shenton Way was hit by a flash flood at 10.30am which lasted around 15 minutes. Little India was flooded for three hours. A tree, due to the bad weather, was brough down, hitting a van driving along Lorong 23 Geylang

Tuesday, 16 Nov 2010

At about 3.30pm, Commonwealth Ave and Holland Drive were hit by flash floods and vehicles had to slow down as the flood partially submerged the tyres of the vehicles. As a result, there was a traffic jam along the junction, but normal flow was restored about 5 minutes later.

2011

Sunday, 30 January 2011 and Monday, 31 January 2011

Continuous heavy rainfall since Sunday drenched most of the island, causing flash floods in at least five areas, mostly in the east. Flash floods were reported on the Tampines Expressway slip road at Tampines Avenue 12 and near the Punggol exit, Airport Boulevard, one stretch of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 and Changi Village.

Localised chokes in the drainage along Airport Boulevard, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 and in Changi Village were blamed for the floods. Lanes along Airport Boulevard and at the junction of Tampines avenues 9 and 12 had to be closed for one to two hours.

The eastern area around Changi and Pulau Ubin received the highest rainfall. As at 7.50pm 30 January, 200.8mm of rain had pelted down on Pulau Ubin, and 178mm in Changi

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Heavy rain caused flash floods in several areas including Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Bishan Street 13. About 90mm of rain fell in less than an hour from 3pm, said the Public Utilities Board (PUB). The floods subsided in about 20 minutes.

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Torrential rain caused flooding at the junction of Novena Square, a tree to fall elsewhere and claimed the life of one victim when a boy fell into a swollen drain along Whampoa.

Despite the drain being guarded by a railing, the boy is believed to have stepped through a break in the railing at the flooded junction of Martaban Road and Minbu Road. He fell into the submerged drain, which is about 1.2m deep. The strong currents swept the boy away, causing him to drown.

Sunday, 5 June 2011

A torrential downpour that lasted several hours early on Sunday morning triggered flash floods across several parts of the island. Senett Estate, Potong Pasir, MacPherson, Toa Payoh, Bukit Timah and Orchard were the areas hardest hit by the floods.

Tanglin Mall, Forum Galleria and Traders Hotel were affected by the flood and partially flooded. St Regis Residences had its basement carparks flooded as well.[15] Previous flood affected shopping malls in June 2010, Lucky Plaza and Liat Towers were not affected as flood barriers were activated at the start of the downpour although some shops were still partially affected.

Tanglin Mall and St Regis did not receive flood alerts from the PUB which was due to a technical glitch in the flood alert software, which PUB will rectify. PUB also explained the flooding to the buildings are due to an heavy rainfall directly into the basements and the buildings' internal drainage pumps unable to cope with the huge amount of water.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Singapore_floods

An exract from an article below:

source:  http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110605-0000052/Heavy-rain-causes-flash-floods-in-Singapore


SINGAPORE - Intense and heavy rain on Sunday morning resulted in flash floods in various parts of Singapore.

Callers to the MediaCorp hotline reported flooding in areas such as Cuscaden Road, Hillcrest Road, Eng Neo Avenue, Sennett Estate near Potong Pasir, MacPherson, Toa Payoh, and Balestier.

They also reported fallen trees caused by the downpour and gusty wind.

Parts of Orchard Road were also reported to be affected by flooding, especially along the stretch of Tanglin Mall.

Two lanes along Bukit Timah Road and the slip road of the Kranji Expressway towards Woodlands were impassable to traffic.

National water agency PUB said various areas in the central and western parts of Singapore were hit by flooding. It advised the public to be careful on these roads.

Drivers were advised to avoid these roads.

In a statement at 12.15pm, PUB said the flash floods reported earlier along Bukit Timah Road (the stretch from Blackmore Road to Maplewood Road) and Dunearn Road (from Rifle Range Road to Yarwood Road) as well as at Orchard Road (Cuscaden Road - at the Tanglin/Tomlinson Road junction and Tanglin/Napir Road junction) had subsided.

These roads are now passable to traffic.

In Bukit Timah, the management committee of Tessarina condominium told MediaCorp that residents were alerted by a siren on Sunday morning when the Bukit Timah canal burst its banks.

Many drove their cars out of the basement to higher grounds. The flood barrier at the condominium was also activated as a preventive measure.

The condominium was one of the places badly affected by previous floods.

Video link on the flood below:

http://youtu.be/f7hiAwVpx6Y


http://youtu.be/QmfitUVcE4s