Singapore Weather circa 2010

Floods in swanky Orchard Road? Floods in Bukit Timah? Floods? There was a time when you can not imagine uttering the word 'flood' together with 'Singapore'. However, in the news lately, normal people have already become semi-professional reporters by reporting the damages caused by floods right in their own homes!

I have been living in Singapore for 16 years now and this year is the first year that I have encountered floods here. Ok, they are not as catastrophic as the ones I experienced in Manila but they are still quite disruptive.

I will not make a guess as to what causes these floods. I have seen newspapers blame the people for throwing garbage anywhere they please. I have also heard blame being heaped on the construction of the new Marina Barrage. I will not add fuel to the fire by siding with any one and just let the real experts explain the mechanics of these floods to us.

However, going to BT / T15 today and seeing some fallen trees, one can't help but wonder at how such old, tall trees can just topple. See this example below.

This tree is blocking a space that is more or less equal to the width of a three lane road. The arrow points to the top of the roots. The roots are so high they could be mistaken for younger trees.


Here is another fallen tree blocking T15.

Inside T15 at least there are no casualties. The only effect this tree had is that it blocks the way to a nice downhill section.

... So what am I trying to say here? Uhhh maybe it's time to really take care of our environment?