The day Orchard Road turned into ‘Orchard River’

Singaporeans reacted with shock after seeing photos and videos of Orchard Road being submerged under water by an early morning torrential downpour on Wednesday.

The heavy rain caused major flooding at the icon Orchard and Scotts Road junction, making the roads impassable to traffic. The rain was especially heavy over the Orchard Road and Rochor Road area, which were submerged in floodwaters of up to half a metre deep. Several shops near Wheelock Place like fast food outlet Wendy’s and luxury retailer Hermes were completely underwater.

Almost 400 Yahoo! Fit-to-Post users reacted with surprise and dismay in the 3 hours since this post was published.

Some like user EHF wondered about the poor drainage facilities along Orchard Road. He said, “Basically, no proper drainage system to go along with rapid buildings being built (sic). Relevant authories need to really look into present drainage system.”

Another FTP user KenluckyL added, “We should not think it is a freak accident but is the concern of the bad reconstruction of road works after building of the new mall — ION. LTA should send its team of specialists and exert to re-inspect the road.”

Yet others like Galleon and Peter questioned if climate change was to blame for the freak heavy downpour.

Besides Orchard Road, other parts of Singapore, including Coronation Road West, Fourth Avenue, Kings Road, Kheam Hock Road and Veerasamy Road were also affected, bringing traffic to a crawl.

The National Environment Agency, in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, said almost 100 mm of rain fell within a two-hour period from about 9 am to 11 am. The Public Utilities Board also said the downpour accounted for over 60% of the total monthly rainfall for June.

IT specialist Ow Yong Hong, who was travelling along Orchard Road on SBS No. 65, witnessed first-hand the severe flooding.

He told Yahoo! Singapore: ”I’ve never seen such flooding along Orchard Road before. Some cars completely broke down at the junction between Lido and Orchard Road. Drivers were stuck inside and were helpless. The water level was so high it even seeped into my bus. Commuters who had to alight had to take off their shoes and roll up their trousers before getting off. People at the bus-stops were standing on the benches to avoid the water.”

Social networking and micro-blogging site Twitter was also awash with flood photos and Singaporeans tweeting about the flash floods.

(courtesy @peiwenl)

Well-known blogger Mr Brown tweeted: “Someone call the Minister of Freak Incidents! Orchard Road flooding!” before posting a photo of a Lucky Plaza basement shop that was completely submerged.

Jovenaatheart tweeted:” It’s the Singaporean equivalent of a natural disaster.”

Yahoo! Singapore user Deb Siddiqi also commented, “I wouldn’t expect this to happen in Singapore, at the most famous road in town.”

courtesy @Winnilicious

The PUB has advised the public to exercise caution as flash floods may still occur in the event of heavy storms. The cause of the flood along Orchard Road is still being investigated.

Sumber: yahoosingapore – June 16th, 2010