Heavy rain causes flash floods in Singapore
PUB said the rainfall on Sunday was more intense than that of June last year, with about 65mm recorded within 30 minutes on Sunday morning, compared to the 100mm within two hours on June 16, 2010.
PUB said the rainfall in the eastern area started early Sunday morning and caused flash floods at
MacPherson areas including Wan Tho Avenue, Sian Kwang Avenue, Jalan Kemboja and Puay Hee Road.
The MacPherson area is a flood-prone area.
The rain moved over to the central area and intensified later in the morning.
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.
PUB said Orchard Road did not experience similar floods this time.
PUB said it has substantially completed raising the stretch of Orchard Road (from Orange Grove Road to Cairnhill Road).
However, flash floods occurred at Cuscaden Road, Tanglin/Tomlinson Road junction, and Napier Road/Tanglin Road junction.
The basement carpark of Delfi Orchard was flooded.
The basement level 1 of Tanglin Mall was also affected for the first time
Forum Shopping Mall was also affected, and many stores had to close temporarily.
MediaCorp understands that water levels were about ankle-deep.
When MediaCorp visited Tanglin and Forum Shopping malls, store owners and employees there said that they had been cleaning up for more than two hours.
Spinelli Coffee Company retail store manager at Forum The Shopping Mall Chen Jiahui said: "The rain is too heavy; the water comes too fast so subsequently, the area is all flooded.
"The water just keeps on gushing in because (the) door is an auto door, so there's no way we can stop the water from coming in".
PUB said it deployed tankers to both Delfi Orchard and Tanglin Mall to pump out the water from their basement carparks.
Meanwhile, at Bukit Timah Road, flash floods occurred at the stretch from Blackmore to Maplewood Road and two out of three lanes were affected. The road was closed temporarily for one hour.
PUB said drainage improvement works are in progress at the stretch from Jalan Kampong Chantek to Maple Avenue and this will improve the drainage capacity along this stretch by end-2011.
PUB mobilised staff and contractors to the sites once it received alerts of heavy rain.
PUB, Traffic Police and SCDF officers were on site to render assistance.
In a statement issued 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; Tanglin/Napir Road junction) have subsided.
These roads are now passable to traffic.
In Bukit Timah, the management committee of Tessarina condominium told MediaCorp residents were alerted by a siren on Sunday morning when the Bukit Timah canal burst its banks.
Many then 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.
PUB said at Marina Barrage, up to five gates were operated during the early part of the morning when sea tide was lower.
Seven pumps were operated at the later part of the morning to lower the water level at Marina Reservoir.
PUB said it has an ongoing drainage improvement programme in flood-prone areas.
It has also enhanced its flood-monitoring system by increasing the number of water level sensors in key canals and drains from 32 to 90 in end-2010.
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