The skies have been grey if you’ve looked out the window the past few days. In fact, on Saturday (4 May), there were strong thunderstorms and heavy rain from the early morning to late evening.
This had been previously predicted by the Meteorological Service Singapore, who had previously stated that the first two weeks of May will be very wet.
However, nobody was prepared for a swimmable flood in the basement of a condominium carpark.
Here’s what happened.
Basement Carpark Flooded, Residents Shocked
On 4 May 2024, multiple videos circulated Facebook groups and Telegram chat groups about a concerningly high level of flooding in the basement of a condominium at 6 Balmoral Crescent.
While the videos were uploaded in the afternoon, Singapore’s National Water Agency PUB said in a statement on Facebook that they were “alerted by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)” about the incident at The Twins condominium at 7.55 am that day.
As seen in the video, the user was seen wading through the knee-deep water, and many car tyres were submerged.
Affected residents told The Straits Times that they were shocked to see the flood and called the authorities immediately.
They were also concerned about whether their car could start after being submerged for a few hours.
Not The Heavy Rain – Faulty Valve in The Basement
In PUB’s statement, they mentioned that they worked together with SCDF and the building management agent to deploy drainage pumps and pump out the water from the carpark.
They said that the flood was due to a faulty valve in the basement’s sprinkler storage tank. The fault caused the water to overflow.
PUB also said that this was an isolated incident. They mentioned specifically that it was not because of the heavy rain, because at that time, the area didn’t experience heavy rain.
Most importantly, they said that the nearby drains were not working overtime.
Thankfully, an SCDF spokesman told The Straits Times that there were no reported injuries.
As the SCDF works hard to remove flood waters, the cuties from the dog training school Bark of Duty were shown playing and swimming in the water.
Bark of Duty is located at 6 Balmoral Crescent, the same location as The Twins condominium.
Based on the video, one of the dog’s names is Baymax. Both dogs had a tennis ball in their mouth and they were supposedly playing fetch.
Looks like there’s no need to use the condominium pool!