SINGAPORE: Heavy and intense rain caused flooding in some parts of Singapore in the early part of Thursday afternoon.
The situation was especially bad in Bukit Timah. At its peak, the flood waters reached knee level. The affected areas were the stretches from Coronation Road to Third Avenue and from Wilby Road to Blackmore Road. The junction of Sixth Avenue with Bukit Timah Road was also flooded.
Traffic was brought to a standstill along some stretches of Bukit Timah Road.
MediaCorp's news hotline received several calls from members of the public who said cars had trouble driving along these areas.
Parents who had sent their children for examinations at schools and junior colleges in the areas were also stuck in the floods. In some cases, water levels reached car windows.
PUB said 92mm of rain fell within half an hour from about 1.20pm–1.50pm. The total amount of rainfall was 110mm which is approximately 43% of the average monthly rainfall for November.
The intense rain (which was about six times that of a normal storm) on Thursday resulted in massive water - equivalent to the amount in 115 Olympic-sized pools - to drain into Bukit Timah 1st Diversion Canal, causing it to overflow.
The Bukit Timah 1st Diversion Canal was completed in the early 1970s and has been effective in preventing flooding in the Bukit Timah area, until the exceptionally intense storm on Thursday. PUB says it intends to upgrade this canal in the near future.
PUB officers were on site on Thursday to render assistance. This included deploying tankers to pump water out from two basement carparks as well as cleaning up houses that had been affected by flood waters.
PUB advises the public to exercise caution as flash floods may still occur in the event of heavy storms.
The public can obtain the latest weather reports, including heavy rain warnings, by tuning in to radio broadcasts or calling NEA's weather forecast hotline at 6542-7788.
The public can also visit the NEA website at www.nea.gov.sg or access the mobile weather service (Weather@SG - weather.nea.gov.sg).
They can also call PUB's 24-hour Call Centre at 1800-284-6600 to report obstructions in drains or to check the flood situation.
- CNA/ir
There was just too much rain
Bukit Timah canal bursts its banks in intense storm
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 20 Nov 09;
THE Bukit Timah canal burst its banks for the first time in years yesterday, unable to contain the afternoon's downpour.
As a result, two stretches of Bukit Timah Road - from Coronation Road to Third Avenue and from Wilby Road to Blackmore Drive - were under water in one of the worst floods in recent years.
The storm, six times the intensity of an average shower here, drenched the Bukit Timah area with close to half a month's worth of rain in about half an hour, said the PUB, the national water agency.
Between 1.20pm and 1.50pm alone, 92mm of rain fell. The total amount of rainfall logged in the area was 110mm - accounting for 43per cent of the average monthly rainfall for November.
The downpour dumped enough water to fill 115 Olympic-size swimming pools into the Bukit Timah canal - overwhelming it.
At its height, the floodwater was knee-deep, throwing traffic in Bukit Timah into chaos. The water subsided after 50 minutes, but traffic tailbacks petered out only at 3.15pm, said the Land Transport Authority.
The police had received 46 calls as at 4pm yesterday relating to the floods. Even the Singapore Civil Defence Force was activated, attending to various calls, including one from a woman who was stranded in a car at the junction of Dunearn Road and Swiss Club Road.
The Automobile Association was also swamped with calls, with 20 from members in that area alone.
The part of the canal that failed to contain the water drains into Sungei Ulu Pandan, and ultimately, the Pandan Reservoir, instead of into the Marina Reservoir, which was created as part of a comprehensive flood-control scheme.
PUB said earlier this week that the wet weather from the north-east monsoon could stretch until January; it also warned about flash floods in low-lying areas, particularly when the rains come during 3m to 3.2m high tides.
Yesterday's floods, however, came about two hours after the day's high tide.
The three-decade-old Bukit Timah canal has been effective in staving off floods until yesterday, and a PUB spokesman said plans have been drawn up to upgrade it.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) had noted that rain was above the national average across many parts of Singapore in the first two weeks of this month.
NEA added that moderate to heavy showers with thunder can be expected in the next few days, mainly in the afternoons.
Flooded carparks, students late for exams
Carolyn Quek & Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 20 Nov 09;
THE waters took the basement carpark of the 6th Avenue Centre by stealth.
By the time Ms Pauline Tan, 30, went to check on her brand new Peugeot 308, the 1,400kg car was half-submerged - but floating, with its roof close to kissing the roof of the carpark.
Its windows were wound up, but water had entered it all the same, reaching the seats inside.
A colleague of the co-owner of a cafe in the building came to her aid - by swimming into the chest-high waters and guiding the gently bobbing car towards the carpark exit in 20 minutes.
Ms Tan, visibly vexed, said: 'We have a motorcycle in there, but we don't know where it is exactly.'
Three other vehicles and the motorcycle parked in the carpark were still submerged when The Straits Times dropped by yesterday at 6pm.
The flooding disrupted telecommunications transmission equipment installed in the basement carpark, cutting off telephone lines in the building.
Contractors for both the PUB and SingTel were trying to pump the water out in the evening.
Another basement carpark along Bukit Timah Road, the one in The Tessarina condominium, was also flooded.
Along some stretches of Bukit Timah Road, the flood waters forced bus commuters to take refuge on bus stop seats.
Traffic was at a standstill. Stuck in many cars, taxis and buses were several anxious students from Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) and National Junior College (NJC), who were supposed to take their A-level physics exam at 2pm.
An HCI spokesman said 15 students, including three from NJC, sat for their paper at 3pm in a separate classroom.
An NJC spokesman said several students turned up bedraggled. Teachers gave them a change of clothes and time to settle down, before they were taken to a separate classroom to take their exams. All exam candidates who showed up late were given the full hour and 15 minutes allotted for the paper.
Nanyang Primary School's vice-principal of administration Loh Yuh Por said one of the school gates facing Coronation Road had to be closed as it had become impassable to cars.
The floods and traffic snarls outside kept pupils stuck in school, waiting for their parents or school buses to show up.
A police spokesman said that, as of 4pm yesterday, the police had received 46 calls for help. The Automobile Association had got more than 20 calls for help, mostly from the Bukit Timah area, as of 4.30pm yesterday.
Businessman Joseph Wong, 43, said: 'I've used this road for many years but this has never happened before. It's just a very third-world kind of experience. I don't understand why this kind of flooding can take place in this prime residential area.'
Flash floods hit Bukit Timah
Straits Times 20 Nov 09;
A photo sent to the Stomp website shows motorists getting out to push their vehicles in flooded Bukit Timah Road. -- PHOTO: BERTRAND/STOMP
DURING 2-1/2 hours yesterday afternoon, almost half a month's worth of rain was dumped on central Singapore, most of which drained into the Bukit Timah Canal.
The canal burst its banks and knee-deep water brought traffic to a standstill along several stretches of Bukit Timah - Coronation Road to Third Avenue; Wilby Road to Blackmore Drive; and the Sixth Avenue junction.
The intense downpour - 110mm of rain between 12.50pm and 3.20pm - was more than the canal could empty into the Pandan reservoir. There were no reports of any serious incidents, but several vehicles stalled and a few were nearly fully submerged in underground carparks.
'The water level was so high my car was floating inside the carpark. My colleague had to swim in to push it out,' said Ms Pauline Tan, the owner of a silver Peugeot parked at the 6th Avenue Centre basement carpark.
Flood waters had subsided by 3.30pm.
CAROLYN QUEK