Tuesday, 8th July 2008.
The sound of rain pattering on the roof woke me up from my not-so-deep sleep. I groaned inwardly thinking of how unfair it is to rain when in an hour or so I would have to get up and get to work.
It remained raining throughout, but slowed to a drizzle as I left the house (about 15 minutes earlier than my usual time as there's usually a more massive traffic jam on rainy days and my intention was to avoid getting into work late). As expected the volume on the road was much more than the road could actually accommodate and for most of the journey I was moving at a pace in which if it was a snail that was doing it, it would have committed suicide in a jiffy out of sheer embarrassment.
As I ambled along my usual route, I was met with one of the most unbelievable scenes ever. The road that leads to the highway that will eventually lead me to my workplace was under at least 1 metre of water. One of my colleagues saw a car getting totally submerged under the water as the driver of that car had recklessly attempted to brave the flood.The river had overflowed due to volume of water from the rain and very bad town planning as well as the fact that rivers in the towns are treated as dumping grounds from things like old furniture to murder victims bodies. Although the latter are far and few between.
After pulling off into another road which I assumed would lead me to another entry point into the highway but was submerged as well, I was left with no other choice but to turn back to where I came from to try another exit (which I usually avoid because I'm not very fond of roundabouts) I was most unfortunately stuck for almost forever as everyone who wanted to get out of the town had to use the one and only exit that wasn't submerged. Not only that, but in my haste to get to work (although it was already late), I had brushed the left side of my front bumper against the right side of another car. Talk about a horrible start to a day!
In the end, a journey that usually takes about 15 to 20 minutes lasted an agonizing 2 hours that day.
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That is too long a trip to work. I wont tell you that it only takes 15mins walking for me. No, I'm not going to tell you that =/
ReplyDeleteActually, my journey is one of the shorter ones. Some people come from as far as 45 minutes away - by car.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the day when I too can walk to work without carbon monoxide poisoning in the picture :)
oh dear...it seems we are all having terrible rain-traffic experiences...
ReplyDeleteWhy no pics of the flood tho? I would love to see that.
SS
SS, you can see some pics here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Frontpage/20080708150844/Article/index_html
I just saw the photos of the flood. It looks quite bad. It's been raining all week here too but no floods yet. None that I know of at least.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember where I read this, but apperently, the river will overflow in the event of it receiving more than 60mm (I think) in any given day. This time, the river received the 60 mm (or more?/less?) in 4 hours.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, it was bad. Should have stayed at home and slept :)
is it raining everywhere in the world right now?
ReplyDeleteUgh! What a horrible sounding day. I hope it got better.
ReplyDeleteI live on a the busiest highway in the country, believe it or not. So cancer is certainly on the table.
ReplyDeleteaunty: Yeah, sure does look like it :)
ReplyDeletetravis: Well, it did get sort of better. I think..
orhan: I'm picturing lots of dust as well
You are correct, my dear. Impressive.
ReplyDelete