Tupi could not sleep well. He woke up the next morning and walked around again. There was an old man taking out some trash outside a house that was sitting in the flood a week ago.
"Good morning! Hello there, was wondering if you require any form of assistance?" Tupi asked.
"Thank you kind sir, however, we are quite used to it." The old man said. "This is not the first time. So there is not a lot in the basement that we keep now."
"Oh my... " Tupi exclaimed. "This happens often?"
"This is the 6th time in 10 years that we are living here." The old man said.
"I met another lady in the shelter the other day, and she said that her house floods almost every year." Tupi said.
"That is probably down the road." The old man said. "I've lived here for more than 50 years, and that used to be a swamp, which sits on flood plains. And you wonder why people would think to live there. "
"Why did the government allow people to build there? Tupi asked.
"Corruption?" The old man said. "Developer probably paid off the mayor or city official to get the land. And when they were building it, it actually flooded as well."
"Then what about your house?" Tupi asked.
"This street started to flood only in the last 10 years." The old man said. "There used to be more open land around here, that strip mall over there did not exist 5 years ago. The car park over there was a forest. Whole area is much more built up, when it rains bad, like during a hurricane, flash floods will happen. And the really heavy rain happens now, once every 2 years... Those houses over there get flooded every year."
"I think this is what happened in Singapore as well. As we got more built up, more flash floods happen as the land can soak up less water, and the water become run offs and flood the area." Tupi sighed. "Thank you for your time, it was very educational and are you sure you don't need my help again?"
The old man shrugged and thank Tupi again as Tupi continued down the road, determined to help someone.
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