Flash floods in eastern Singapore
SINGAPORE: A three-hour early morning downpour caused flash floods in eastern Singapore yesterday.
The affected areas were some parts of Tampines Road; slip road of Bedok Road and New Upper Changi Road; Jalan Nipah; junction of Sim Avenue and Tanjong Katong Road; junction of Sim Avenue and Eunos Road 8; Arumugam Road; junction of Bedok Road and Upper Changi Road East; junction of Upper Changi Road and Bedok North Avenue 4 and junction of Tampines Avenue 12.
The floods subsided after the rain stopped and the roads became passable to traffic.
The republic’s national water agency, PUB, had at around 7am started alerting the public via its social media platforms.
In an update on its Facebook account, PUB said the floods occurred due to intense rain.
Some of the flooded locations were hot spots, meaning they have a history of flooding due to localised conditions, and some were subject to tidal influence.
PUB said the floods occurred between 8.30am and 10.30am, with the floodwaters lasting between 15 minutes and an hour in each area.
“The wet weather conditions, due to the prevailing northeast monsoon, were aggravated by the development of a Sumatra squall over the Straits of Malacca which moved eastwards, thus affecting Singapore,” it said.
The agency said widespread rain fell over Singapore yesterday morning, with the heaviest rainfall of 118.8 mm recorded at the Kim Chuan Road rain gauge between 6.20am and 10.25am.
The 118.8 mm of rainfall is about half of Singapore’s average monthly rainfall in January, it said. – Bernama