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The morning after flash floods hit Orchard Road, affected retailers were still turning customers away while workers were busy mopping up the mess.
At Liat Towers, where flood waters flowed into Hermes on Friday evening, the luxury retailer remains shuttered, until further notice.
All three stores were at least ankle-deep in water on Friday when heavy rain overwhelmed these basement shops, despite flood barriers being activated in front of the building and the individual shops. The barriers were installed after Orchard Road was hit by its worst flood in June last year.
At Lucky Plaza, sandbags placed near the basement entrance did not stop shops in the basement from being flooded to about ankle-high.
While few shops had their goods damaged this time - store assistants were quick to move goods to higher nt from being flooded to about ankle-high.ground - they suffered a loss in business of between 20 and 60 per cent.
Mr John Lim, manager of a jewellery shop at Lucky Plaza and in his mid-30s, said: 'This is not the first time the flood has happened and we have given feedback to the building management every time, but with limited success.'
The management committee of Lucky Plaza could not be reached but The Sunday Times understands that it is in the process of getting a contractor to implement flood prevention measures.
Retailers are upset that the slew of flood prevention measures introduced since last year's flash floods failed to stave off a repeat of the incident.
Mr Seng Woon Fa, 37, marketing and branding manager of Wendy's, said: 'We are quite disappointed because it has happened so many times. We hope that the building management and the authorities can work out the real issues.'
He added that the cause of the floods at Liat Towers may not be due to the inadequacy of the barricades but other drainage issues.
Liat Tower's estate management declined to comment.
National water agency PUB said it is working with the affected buildings' managers to find out how to help them to install more flood protection measures.
It raised a stretch of low-lying road between Orange Grove Road and Cairnhill Road in June, which it says has helped to prevent rainwater from overflowing from the canal onto the road and increased the canal's capacity. It attributed Friday's floods to prolonged heavy rain that fell directly into Liat Towers' open basement area.
Mr Steven Goh, executive director of the Orchard Road Business Association, said an expert panel formed by the Government should 'give an answer' on why the flood happened even though measures had been put in place.
He said an SMS flood alert by the authorities around 5pm on Friday indicated that the water level in the Stamford Canal near Orchard Tower had risen above 90 per cent, which was 'a dangerous level', even if PUB maintains that the canal did not overflow.
A panel of 12 local and international experts was set up in June to look into the floods. It is expected to convene next month to finalise its report, which will be submitted to the ministry.
Shoppers in Orchard Road were undeterred by the possibility of floods occurring again due to the wet weather forecast.
===================
RESPONSE FROM PUB:
Dear Orchard Road Shop Owners,
I refer to your pondings to the Sunday Times reporters with all the compraints about the gathering of excessive waters surrounding your shops yesterday. As indicated in our press statement yesterday, there were NO FLOODS in Orchard Road yesterday. What is it about NO FLOOD that you do not understand? Yes, we do agree that there was some ponding and maybe some lakeing, in the lower lying areas. In fact, in most instances, it was just the usual longkanging.
So, please gentlemen, do not go crying to the press about the figments of your imagination nor should you exaggerate about the marginal overflow of waters to form ponds. Most of these were just longkangs. Floods happen only in Thailand, even then, in the Singapore context, it is just lakeing. What then qualifies for the "flood" label in Singapore? When the US satellites above are unable to detect us from above.
Until that time, I will call a spade a Spade, a Kate Spade, I mean. I had wanted to say it was 'puddling' but was afraid that the word is too long and may lead to a misunderstanding like the SHT matter, so I kept to a 4-letter word.
Yours sincerely,
Lok Hor Chwee
(aka WTFlood)
At Liat Towers, where flood waters flowed into Hermes on Friday evening, the luxury retailer remains shuttered, until further notice.
All three stores were at least ankle-deep in water on Friday when heavy rain overwhelmed these basement shops, despite flood barriers being activated in front of the building and the individual shops. The barriers were installed after Orchard Road was hit by its worst flood in June last year.
At Lucky Plaza, sandbags placed near the basement entrance did not stop shops in the basement from being flooded to about ankle-high.
While few shops had their goods damaged this time - store assistants were quick to move goods to higher nt from being flooded to about ankle-high.ground - they suffered a loss in business of between 20 and 60 per cent.
Mr John Lim, manager of a jewellery shop at Lucky Plaza and in his mid-30s, said: 'This is not the first time the flood has happened and we have given feedback to the building management every time, but with limited success.'
The management committee of Lucky Plaza could not be reached but The Sunday Times understands that it is in the process of getting a contractor to implement flood prevention measures.
Retailers are upset that the slew of flood prevention measures introduced since last year's flash floods failed to stave off a repeat of the incident.
Mr Seng Woon Fa, 37, marketing and branding manager of Wendy's, said: 'We are quite disappointed because it has happened so many times. We hope that the building management and the authorities can work out the real issues.'
He added that the cause of the floods at Liat Towers may not be due to the inadequacy of the barricades but other drainage issues.
Liat Tower's estate management declined to comment.
National water agency PUB said it is working with the affected buildings' managers to find out how to help them to install more flood protection measures.
It raised a stretch of low-lying road between Orange Grove Road and Cairnhill Road in June, which it says has helped to prevent rainwater from overflowing from the canal onto the road and increased the canal's capacity. It attributed Friday's floods to prolonged heavy rain that fell directly into Liat Towers' open basement area.
Mr Steven Goh, executive director of the Orchard Road Business Association, said an expert panel formed by the Government should 'give an answer' on why the flood happened even though measures had been put in place.
He said an SMS flood alert by the authorities around 5pm on Friday indicated that the water level in the Stamford Canal near Orchard Tower had risen above 90 per cent, which was 'a dangerous level', even if PUB maintains that the canal did not overflow.
A panel of 12 local and international experts was set up in June to look into the floods. It is expected to convene next month to finalise its report, which will be submitted to the ministry.
Shoppers in Orchard Road were undeterred by the possibility of floods occurring again due to the wet weather forecast.
===================
RESPONSE FROM PUB:
Dear Orchard Road Shop Owners,
I refer to your pondings to the Sunday Times reporters with all the compraints about the gathering of excessive waters surrounding your shops yesterday. As indicated in our press statement yesterday, there were NO FLOODS in Orchard Road yesterday. What is it about NO FLOOD that you do not understand? Yes, we do agree that there was some ponding and maybe some lakeing, in the lower lying areas. In fact, in most instances, it was just the usual longkanging.
So, please gentlemen, do not go crying to the press about the figments of your imagination nor should you exaggerate about the marginal overflow of waters to form ponds. Most of these were just longkangs. Floods happen only in Thailand, even then, in the Singapore context, it is just lakeing. What then qualifies for the "flood" label in Singapore? When the US satellites above are unable to detect us from above.
Until that time, I will call a spade a Spade, a Kate Spade, I mean. I had wanted to say it was 'puddling' but was afraid that the word is too long and may lead to a misunderstanding like the SHT matter, so I kept to a 4-letter word.
Yours sincerely,
Lok Hor Chwee
(aka WTFlood)
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