And when you go to Stomp, you'll see most of the articles of Singapore Seen are the weather-related ones. (Should have changed the category from Singapore Seen to Singapore Soaked.)
Some of those articles--so far there are 7 of them:
- Ominous clouds hang over city before morning floods
- Heavy rain causes tree to fall and block walkway to mosque near Shenton Way
- West side of S'pore also hit by morning floods
- Fallen tree blocks road leading to restaurants on Dempsey Hill
- Bedok condo residents trapped as flood hits carpark and lift lobby
- Heavy rain turns drains into water fountains at OCBC Centre
- Morning storm wreaks flood havoc all over S'pore.
And also one from Asiaone:
Singapore residents woke up to another downpour early this morning.
Skies were dark and in the eastern part of Singapore, the downpour started after 7am.
Photographer Alvin Teo, 20, an intern with AsiaOne, said of the scene he saw while walking from Braddell MRT station to the junction leading to his workplace: "The junction was flooded. People looked like they were swimming!"
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A check half an hour later by AsiaOne revealed that the waters at the junction have since subsided.
Mr Teo also saw two women chasing after their slippers, which were swept away by the waters.
Another Singaporean caught in the flood was Bedok resident Catherine Tan. Miss Tan said she avoided Tanah Merah MRT station at New Upper Changi Road when she heard there was a flood there. She decided to take a taxi instead, but she was still caught in a jam and flood at Bedok South Road.
She told AsiaOne: "The cars in front were hardly moving, so I was stuck in the jam for more than 10 minutes. It was like wading through sea water. Some of the cars were stalled, which caused the jam. One driver tried to escape the flood by driving over the kerb dividing the two-way road, but his car got stuck. He and another passenger then tried to lift the car off the kerb. It sounds incredible but true."
Reports coming in indicate heavy flooding in several parts of Singapore.
Floods were seen in areas, including, parts of Upper Thomson Road and Jalan Boon Lay.
This morning, a taxi was stuck in a flood at the junction of Macpherson Road and Kampong Ampat SCDF rescuers guided the passenger and driver to safety.
A childcare centre at Telok Kurau was also flooded. The SCDF used a pump to extract water from the childcare centre and assisted in evacuating about 18 children and seven adults from the centre.
Branches, snapped off by strong gusts of wind, also caused traffic chaos. Fallen branches disrupted traffic flow near Orchard Central, as two lanes were blocked.
This morning, a tree fell onto vehicles on the CTE towards Yishun, between Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 and Ave 3. Two casualties, a man and a woman, were brought to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Another two casualties, also a man and a woman, were brought to Singapore General Hospital after a tree fell at Kampung Bahru Raod.
The Meteorological Services Division has issued a rain-with-thunder warning. It said to expect showers with thunder late morning and early afternoon for the next three days.
Last Wednesday, parts of Orchard Road and Bukit Timah were flooded, leading to damage to luxury shops and vehicles. In Orchard, Hermes and the three-day-old fast-food outlet Wendy's were among those whose premises and goods were reported damaged by the flood.
AsiaOne readers also said that parts of Bukit Timah were uncrossable for a period of time, except for buses and bigger vehicles.
From Asiaone, "Heavy flooding in parts of Singapore".
As well as one from Channel NewsAsia:
The heavy downpour on Friday morning caused chaos on the roads with another bout of flooding across the island.
At least four people were injured, and several others trapped by rising waters and fallen trees.
This comes just a week after flash floods wreaked havoc at Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt.
A van crushed by a massive tree was just one casualty of the storm that lashed through the island early Friday morning. Gusty winds uprooted the entire tree from its roots.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said two people in the van were injured and were sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Along the Central Expressway (CTE), another tree fell onto a car, causing a massive traffic jam which stretched several kilometres.
Traffic Police were on hand to divert traffic away from the CTE towards SLE in between the Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 and Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 exit due to the fallen tree.
For many motorists, visibility on the roads was down to just a few metres.
A similar scene was observed near Orchard Central. A fallen tree blocked three lanes of traffic.
Responding to queries from MediaCorp, the National Parks Board said it attended to 25 incidences of fallen trees at various locations islandwide.
Its assistant director for Streetscape (Projects), Ng Cheow Kheng, said: "Most obstructions involving fallen trees or branches this morning were cleared within the hour, or pushed to the road verges to be cleared later.
"The exception was the fallen tree at the Central Expressway (after Ang Mo Kio Ave 1), which took about two hours to remove due to traffic conditions."
Mr Ng added: "We look after about 1 million trees located within parks, nature reserves and road verges, and they are generally healthy. We also have a sound tree safety inspection and maintenance programme in place.
"Our regular checks showed that incidences of fallen trees or branches were mainly due to adverse weather conditions rather than poor health or tree rot. ... Apart from regular checks on trees and soil conditions, we also identify trees which are vulnerable during rainstorms and replace them with stronger ones."
At a childcare centre at Telok Kurau, in the eastern part of Singapore, 18 pre-school children and seven adults were evacuated as knee-deep waters gushed into the building.
The SCDF used pumps to extract water from the affected building.
MediaCorp viewers also sent in videos of vehicles trapped by rising waters.
Singapore's national water agency PUB said heavy and intense rain fell in many parts of Singapore. It added that 100 millimetres (mm) of rain fell within an hour, between 8am and 9.30am.
That is 60 per cent of the average rainfall recorded for the entire month of June. The same amount of rainfall was recorded on June 16 when storms led to the massive flooding in Orchard Road.
PUB said the heavy rain on Friday morning caused localised flash floods in a number of areas and the waters subsided within 30 minutes.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) told MediaCorp that "the total rainfall recorded for June 2010 to date at the Climate Station in Changi is 204.3mm".
This has surpassed the average monthly rainfall of 160mm for June. Two heavy downpours, including the one on Friday morning, in the last ten days contributed to most of the rainfall - about 200mm.
NEA added: "Although the Southwest Monsoon months of June to September are characterised by relatively dry weather, it is still possible for Singapore to experience such intense showers from time to time.
"For the rest of this month, short-duration showers with thunder are expected mostly in the late morning and afternoon. Widespread showers with thunder and occasional gusty winds in the morning can be expected on 1 or 2 days."
Since the flooding last week, PUB has installed gratings at canals at Holland Road and behind Tanglin Shopping Centre.
All in, PUB said it will spend S$25,000 to install five gratings in drains upstream from the Stamford Canal, which runs in the heart of Orchard Road. The gratings are designed to trap debris while allowing water to flow through.
Those affected by the floods are hoping such measures will mitigate any future problems.
At the Lucky Plaza shopping complex, a bookstore which was one of the many shops hit by the floods last week was luckier this time round.
Bernard Chung, owner of Discount Bookstore, said: "The flood in my memory was very clear because I was here at about 10.15am in the morning and the water came in so quickly it covered up the whole place and it turned into a swimming pool at the basement.
"This morning I was concerned, so I came a little bit early just to make sure, but thank god nothing happened."
Interestingly, shopkeepers are now offering post-flood discounts at Lucky Plaza, in a bid to lure back the crowds.
From Channel NewsAsia, "Flash floods wreak havoc across S'pore in morning rush hour".
And from Straits Times:
FOUR people were injured when falling trees or tree branches struck the cars they were in during Friday morning's intense and heavy downpour which caused flash floods in many areas across Singapore.
Gusty winds snapped and uprooted at least six trees, some of which fell across major roads, blocking lanes and bringing traffic to a halt. Along the Central Expressway towards Yishun, between Ang Mo Kio Avenues 1 and 3, a tree fell onto several vehicles, including a van at around 9am.
A man and woman in the van were injured. The Singapore Civil Defence Force rushed two ambulances to the scene. The couple were treated at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The woman had bruises and the man fractured his left hand.
Just half an hour later, along Kampung Bahru Road towards Keppel Distripark, near the Malayan Railway (KTM) station, two more persons were injured when a tree fell on a taxi. They were both sent to Singapore General Hospital by the SCDF. The man had a laceration on his right hand, while the woman injured her left hand.
SCDF officers also rescued a passenger and the driver from another taxi which was stuck in the floodwaters at the junction of Macpherson Road and Kampong Ampat at about 9 am.
They were also called to help evacuate 18 preschoolers at a childcare centre at Telok Kurau Lorong G, and pump out water from the school premises. The pupils and seven staff members were moved to a neighbour's house.
From Straits Times, "4 hurt by fallen trees".
