Floods a freak event, or could we have tracked it?

Straits Times Forum 28 Nov 09;

IT IS heartening to learn from Wednesday's report, 'Work to expand canals next year', that PUB intends to take concrete steps in the wake of what was described as 'an extraordinarily intensive storm on Nov 19'. I hope this will go at least some way to relieve the anxiety of residents in the flood-prone Bukit Timah area.

Although we are into the annual monsoon period when heavy rain is only to be expected, it does seem strange that with all the sophisticated tracking technology now available to meteorologists, there was no advance warning of this 'extraordinarily intensive storm' for the public to prepare themselves adequately.

The report informs that 'this flood comes three years after one of Singapore's worst floodings in recent history, in December 2006'.

However, this appears to conflict with the comment attributed to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim ('Deluge a 'once in 50 years' event', last Saturday) that this was a 'freak' event.

I recall from memory that friends living in a two-storey house in Carlisle Road had to evacuate to the upper floor when there was more than 1m of water downstairs - this would have been in 1969. Again in 1979, I was caught along Dunearn Road in a car with the water more than 1m above road level, leaving many cars stalled. Arguably, anyone who had any personal experience would be inclined to believe his was the worst.

As the weather appears to be at the whims and fancy of Mother Nature, it will be intriguing to see how far the ingenuity of man will be able to keep its destructive forces at bay.

Narayana Narayana