Historic rainy day

I was there! But before this:

(picture from ST interactive)

We were diverted at the MacRitchie junction because of flood waters there and along the way home, we also encountered accidents, fallen trees, etc. There was this road where it was two-way traffic, single lane each direction. A tree had fallen on the other lane and these people from LTA or wherever were directing traffic, like how they do it when there are road works. Each side takes turns to go. It's common sense, isn't it? If you don't take turns, how is the traffic on the side of the fallen tree going to move? I guess some people lose their common sense on rainy days because there was this driver on our lane who kept blasting his/her horn whenever it was our side's turn to wait.

I realise too that some people develop a need to speed on rainy days. On Monday night, we were also driving home with the rain lashing down. It was already tough seeing properly through the front windscreen and I always have problems seeing through the side window and side mirrors in the heavy rain, especially at night. How is it that people can drive like it's a normal sunny day, speeding, changing lanes, overtaking, etc? Do they have special side windows and side mirrors that help them to see clearly through the rain?

According to the ST Tuesday's rain was the heaviest in the last 75 years, the other two heaviest days being in 1969 and 1978. I don't remember the 1969 or 1978 ones. I do remember, though, that flooding was nothing unusual on rainy days back then. You had floods everywhere, even in your backyard, front yard, etc. They were perfect days to play with paper boats except that my dad forbade us from doing so. I was really upset because when else can you play with paper boats, right? It was only when I was a little older that I realised it was because the paper would just get stuck in the drain or drain covers and he would have a tough time cleaning up.

I also remember that when the impending move of my school from its prime location to the heartlands was announced, my teacher said it had something to do with widening the canal beside the school. Of course everyone was appalled at the idea of our beloved school being anywhere other than where it was but she said that if we didn't move and they didn't widen the canal, it would be our fault if the whole of Singapore got flooded. I suppose they've done the widening and all by now because the SMRT office sits on where my school was and I don't hear of them getting blamed for floods.