Damage caused by floods could run to millions:
shopowners
By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 20 December 2006 1926 hrs
SINGAPORE : In Singapore, the sun finally came out on Wednesday
morning after nearly two days of non-stop rain.
But it is too little too late for some shops located in low-lying
areas.
They bore the brunt of Tuesday's massive floods, which had caused
damage estimated to run to millions of dollars.
The Public Utilities Board (PUB) says flood and heavy rain alerts
were sent out before the clouds turned grey.
The tide has passed, but there was nothing to cheer about.
Workers at some shops took stock of the damage, while others
salvaged whatever they could.
About 100 holiday hampers were saved at one outlet.
Ryan Chioh, Owner, Goodwood Florist, said, "The priority, even from
last night, has always been to save the customers' orders. After
all we're a gift company. At the same time, (we will) call
customers that are affected, as much as we can... This is the first
time something like this has happened. The last two floods that we
had, they were flash floods. They came and went very fast. So we
were hoping for that to happen. But it never did."
And it looks like it will take a while, perhaps even up to months,
for business to resume. But the mood of its 30 workers has not been
dampened. They hope to put things back together and get business up
and running again before Lunar New Year in 2007.
And water continues to flow from MacRitchie Reservoir but the rate
has since slowed down as it had stopped raining. PUB says about
1,500 kilogrammes of debris have been cleared from drains in Olive
Road alone.
But could the damage have been minimised?
PUB sent out heavy rain alerts in early October to some 600
residents and shopowners in flood-prone areas like Geylang. Other
areas include Boat Quay, Chinatown, Jalan Besar, and Lorong
Buangkok. The notices advised people to, for example, put up sand
bags and block the entry of water.
Other advice included placing items on a higher level.
But Goodwood Florist claims it did not get such notices.
Tuesday's heavy rain and floods also stalled trains travelling
between Singapore and Malaysia. At least five services were
cancelled on Wednesday.
Trains affected include Ekspress Rakyat, travelling from
Singapore to Kuala Lumpur; Ekspress Sinaran Pagi, from Kuala Lumpur
to Singapore; and Mail Trains No. 58, 61 and 64.
Visitor numbers also dipped at Sentosa to only about 3,000 per day
during the wet weather, down from the daily average of
10,000.
There is more wet weather to come over Singapore in the next few
days.
Even though chances of prolonged rain are not high, the National
Environment Agency is not totally ruling it out.
