A huge thunderstorm, which occurred on Sunday (March 15), caused extensive damage to the trees at the Chinese Gardens and Japanese gardens, says STOMPer Growiser.
According to him, the strong winds and rain had uprooted more that 30 trees in these parks. Both parks were then shut down for the day to prevent park-goers from getting hurt.
Growiser hopes that park authorities will carry a check on the health of park trees to prevent such situations from happening again in the future.
STOMPer Growiser says in an e-mail dated March 16:
"A twister visited Jurong West yesterday afternoon (March 15) and resulted in some devastating damages.
"Entrances to Chinese Gardens and Japanese Gardens were closed to the public.
"Fallen trees damaged the shelters and seats in the park. The bicycle and pedestrian walkway were not passable.
"The CCTV and carpark gantry were also damaged. The signage of Caspian showroom also collapsed.
"It was reported that more than 10 trees fell but personally, I think the number is closer to 30 trees or more.
"From the photos, you can see that many of the trees, instant or not, have very shallow roots.
"For the safety of park users, Nparks and JTC's Jurong Park should inspect the health of all the trees in and around Chinese and Japanese Gardens.
"Excluding yesterday’s incident, over the past few months, I have witnessed the collapse of more than five trees."
Related posts: So many uprooted trees seen at Jurong East (18th March 2009)
Uprooted tree rests precariously on sheltered linkway (16th March 2009)
Storm sends Science Centre ceiling boards crashing (16th March 2009)
Heavy rain causes tree to fall outside Jurong Primary School and stall traffic (15th March 2009)
