The Singapore Forum

What would happen if a devastating storm hits Singapore ? Will it survive..

Yes

The storm or Singapore?

I think a storm never survives..ultimately it dies in a short coursre..but that was a nice way of putting it SM..I wonder of there is a massive disruption in singapores's infrastructure like in US right now..will there be casualities

Hurricanes (Atlantic Ocean), Cyclones (Indian Ocean, though Hong Kongers seem confused about this) and Typhoons (Pacific Ocean) cannot form at equatorial latitudes. So, Singapore will not ever be struck by such a storm. If it did, hypothetically, the steel reinforced concrete construction of 95% of the buildings here and the general lack of trees in populated areas would limit damage and fatalities a lot. Falling trees are a big cause of damage in such storms. Some flooding, and maybe idiots trying to drive in the middle of it (which some can barely do on a sunny day, so it could be messy).

Hmmm....I wouldn't say storms don't hit Singapore, in 2001, a strong storm hit Singapore (Christmas day too!), but as T2K said, minimal damage due to the types of buildings.

Also, there is not a long fetch as Singapore is surrounded by Malaysia and Indonesia. This mean waves will not have a chance to grow to the heights that hit countries bordering large oceans. This also protects Singapore from tsunamis.

Furthermore, Singapore is a small country. There will always be local flooding, sorry, ponding, but there's never going to be widespread flooding seen in places like Bangladesh.

Ponding

There was bloody ponding on the PIE this morning. Not even an inch of water on one lane and the whole friggin expressway grinds to a halt.

There was ponding on it last night too - right by the Eng Neo exit.

Have to rename that to Oz Neo soon.

I'm surprised their ponding management is so bad for a country that cops it's fair share of rain.

Remember the Orchard flooding ? The installed some flood gates in the storm drain that ran down the back of Tanglin Shopping Centre to slow the flow into Orchard (I posted a photo but I can't find it). Reactive and not really thought out.

Remember the flooding of Tanglin Mall ? They removed the flood gates from the back of Tanglin Shopping centre to speed up the flow away from Tanglin.

slinky wrote:There was ponding on it last night too - right by the Eng Neo exit.

Oh, so only one ponding incident, as it was still there this morning. Probably to do with the widening of the road there.

But overall, considering the amount of rain, there is minimal flooding. Of course you will hear about Orchard Road floodings, the fact you do not hear about them every day of the rainy season every year I think is pretty good job.

What's the hotel near Tanglin Mall? Not Traders, is it the Regent? The road by that, that goes off Tanglin, and the junction with the road that runs parallel with Tanglin, used to flood really quickly. May have been improved as they built the St Regis along there didn't they?

Had one of my scariest taxi rides along there - the taxi aunty was so petrified of driving that I almost offered to do it.

We were just speculating the other day as to where is the safest place in the world to live, in terms of least exposure to severe weather/natural disasters?

Scrummy Mummy wrote:We were just speculating the other day as to where is the safest place in the world to live, in terms of least exposure to severe weather/natural disasters?

Montserrat?

Morrolan wrote:

Scrummy Mummy wrote:We were just speculating the other day as to where is the safest place in the world to live, in terms of least exposure to severe weather/natural disasters?

Montserrat?

Oh yeah, it was really safe when I was sitting by the pool at the Vue Pointe in '95 when the thing went bang!

What a charmed life you lead MH

Monkey Hanger wrote:

Morrolan wrote: Montserrat?

Oh yeah, it was really safe when I was sitting by the pool at the Vue Pointe in '95 when the thing went bang!

That's scary.

I was here for that storm in 2001 on Christmas, but when I think of a bad storm I am thinking of hurricane winds, 100mph+. Winds that rip roofs off, tear trees out the ground and smash them through buildings, etc (been there, done that and it's scary). Singapore isn't getting any of that.