Tropical storm behind strongest winds to hit Singapore in 9 years
By Tan Yew Guan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 23 April 2009 2033 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) has said a tropical storm is the reason for the strong winds which blew into Singapore on Wednesday night.

A wind speed of up to 83 kilometres per hour was recorded - the strongest in nearly nine years.

Among the damage caused were fallen trees and a broken construction crane.

Residents of private condominium Abelia woke up to find their Ardmore Park neighbourhood, near Shangri La Hotel, behind police lines.

A construction crane at the neighbouring building had snapped into two, with most of it dangling precariously from the 30th floor.

Police said a lifting kit connected to the crane was found along the road. No one was injured.

However, the Manpower Ministry has stopped work at the site while it figures out how to safely recover the crane. It is investigating the incident, which has also attracted the attention of other builders nearby.

Tan Heok Ngee Benjamin, Project Manager, C@nspecs Pte Ltd, said: "This crane is commonly used in a lot of construction sites. So if some problem happens here, we want to see if there is anything we can do to prevent this from happening."

Officials from the building company involved, Poh Lian Construction, were tight-lipped about the incident.

Like many others across the island, residents in the neighbourhood said they experienced unusually strong winds last night. The winds also wreaked havoc elsewhere across Singapore last night.

The NEA said the strong winds were caused by a Sumatra squall, named as such because the storm usually develops overnight in Sumatra and the Strait of Malacca, before sweeping into Singapore between midnight and daybreak.

NEA said such storms usually occur between April and September. For the rest of the month, we can expect another one or two Sumatran squalls, but they are unlikely to be as severe as the one on Wednesday night.

- CNA/yt