Damage by unusual storm to cost Jurong Country Club more than $20,000
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 18 Mar 09;
HE HAS been working at Jurong Country Club for more than 25 years and he has never seen anything like it.
Mr Mohd Ghous Abdul Rahim, 53, a golf marshal, said of the squall that blew down more than 200 trees in the club on Sunday afternoon: 'Normally, it's only one or two trees, but this time, there were so many down. It was terrible.
'Luckily, no one got hurt but this is still a disaster.'
Strong winds of up to 90kmh had ripped through the club on Sunday in the middle of an inter-club Singapore Golf Association tournament which involved about 80 golfers.
Although there was no anemometer (instrument to measure wind speed) at the club, maximum gusts of up to 50 knots (90kmh) have been recorded by the meteorological department during the passage of a Sumatra squall, a weather phenomenon that results in sudden, intense thunderstorms here. (See infographics on facing page.)
Mr Ross Tan, 53, who was part of the green committee which decided to call off the competition, said: 'We were all huddled in the halfway houses and the wind was horrendous. The wind was so strong that rain was coming in sideways like bullets shooting at you. It was frightening.'
The decision was made to abandon the tournament because the many tall trees that were there to protect certain holes were gone and this would have affected the degree of difficulty of the golf course, he added.
Right before the Sumatra squall, the club's lightning meter registered a reading of '35', a very high number considering that, at a reading of 'two', the greens are cleared of people to prevent lightning from striking anyone, said Mr Mike Chng, the club's golfing supervisor.
He said: 'At around 3.45pm, there was a lot of lightning, so we suspended the course and got everyone to take shelter. Fifteen minutes later, the sky was very dark and suddenly, there was a very, very, strong wind.
'It was like a scene from the movie, The Ten Commandments, where the winds parted the Red Sea.'
Then 15 minutes later, the lightning meter went back down to 'zero' and the golfers were prepared to go back to their game as the sky had cleared.
That was when they saw the destruction that had taken place.
'It was like a typhoon had come through, all the paths were blocked, we couldn't use the buggies and the golfers had to walk back.
Some trees simply snapped at their base because of the wind. Others were uprooted with metres of roots exposed.
The clubhouse's metal roof plating also came off - four pieces of it, weighing at least 10kg in total.
They were flung tens of metres away, said Mr Mohd Ghous, who had picked them up.
Mr Kok Cheong Ming, the golf course manager, said the trees that came down were of different ages and different species.
'What is common is that their roots didn't go very deep because the water table is high,' he said. He added that the cost of removing the trees alone will come up to $15,000. Replacing fewer than half of the trees would cost another $4,800.
Mr Peter Goh, general manager of the club, said: 'This would easily cost us $20,000 at the minimum. We haven't calculated the opportunity cost of closing the course for three days.
'We'll try to re-open as quickly as possible, especially for the freelance caddies who would otherwise have no work.'
A spokesman for the National Environment Agency said: 'The weather forecast for 15 Mar (on Sunday) was showers with thunder over many areas in the afternoon.
'A heavy rain warning was issued at 2.51pm for heavy showers with thunder to affect many areas of Singapore between 3.15pm and 4.45pm. The mid-afternoon showers with thunder, which is common during this period, was due to a convergence of winds and strong convection over our area.'
Wet weather for S'pore till end of month
RAINFALL was above average for the first two weeks of this month.
The northern part of Singapore around Yishun and Seletar experienced the highest rainfall of 310mm to 350mm. This is 250 to 290 percent above the monthly average as compared to previous years.
Areas in the north-west and south around Choa Chu Kang and the city received the lowest rainfall of 135mm to 170mm, but was still 50 to 90 per cent above average.
For the next fortnight, from today till the end of the month, Singapore can continue to expect wet weather conditions.
For more detailed forecasts, refer to http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/mss2.asp or call 65427788.
