STI
MARCH 19, 2004

Sandbags Tide tables Makeshift dams
Getting ready for the flood

20 PUB officers visit 600 buildings in low-lying areas to alert people

By Arti Mulchand

SANDBAGS at the ready, Mr Khalil Hussein is all set to battle the next
floods that could come as early as this weekend, if the weather
predictions come true.

Mr Khalil, 39, a Jordanian who has lived here for eight years, is
about to open a backpacker hostel called Summer Tavern in Carpenter
Street.

He had rented the four-storey building quite unaware that its ground
floor is close to high tide levels - until the place became flooded on
March 8. His is one of the lowest-lying buildings in the flood-prone
Boat Quay area.

He'd left the place to go to lunch and returned to find the parquet on
the ground floor under knee-deep water.

He was grateful when Public Utilities Board drainage department
officers came calling at his Carpenter Street unit on Wednesday, with
tide tables and tip sheets on dealing with floods.

Twenty PUB officers working in 13 teams went door-to-door visiting
more than 600 buildings in low-lying areas, including Boat Quay,
Chinatown, Jalan Besar, Dakota Crescent and Katong, to alert the
owners and tenants.

The PUB had issued its March flood warnings in November, but Mr Khalil
never got them since he moved in only this January.

'At least now I know what to do next week; I can't leave anything to
chance,' he said.

There is a high risk of floods from Sunday to Tuesday. In the southern
part of the island, in places like Boat Quay, tides are expected to
peak at 3 m in mid-afternoon.

This is the wettest March fortnight on record and it has already seen
the island soaked with 552mm of rain, beating the 1913 record, said
the National Environment Agency's meteorological services division.

More rain is forecast for the next two weeks.

Last week's heavy rains and high tides caused floods that caught many
unawares, even those who have been in the area for years and who had
received the flood alert.

Spice importer Swee Choon, which has been on Carpenter Street for 10
years, lost $1,000 in spices. The floods came in from both the front
and the back. Though the spices were on raised pallets, the water came
too fast and hard, said the general manager, Mr Ng Wee Meng, 33.

At See Hoy Chan, a rice importer across the road, 10 years' worth of
filed documents were soaked and could not be saved.

Mr Yeo Boon Leng, 52, the assistant director (planning) of PUB's
drainage department, said much had been done to improve drainage in
the area and these lowest-lying units had to fend for themselves.

Apart from providing flood warnings, the PUB will provide a list of
sandbag suppliers, and customised advice to those who call in.

Said Mr Yeo: 'They now also have tide tables for the rest of the year,
so all they have to do is look out for heavy rain, and be prepared to
move fast.'

As for Mr Khalil, he's spent $1,000 replacing the entrance parquet
with tiles, and he has sturdy 30cm-high wooden boards ready for use as
mini-dams in the corridor.

The new leather sofas in the lobby, which escaped the floods because
they arrived just three days ago, will be hauled upstairs the next
time the sky clouds over, like next week.

The sandbags are an extra precaution he's added on PUB's advice.

He said: 'To the Arabs, water always means good business... But now I
am worried. I'm praying for the tide to stay low.'

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