Clear weather in large parts of the Western Cape on Tuesday allowed provincial government departments to begin a mop-up and recovery operation after long-weekend flooding, which provincial premier Alan Winde says was a one-in-a-century event.
Exceptionally heavy rainfall on Sunday and Monday caused several rivers to break their banks, destroying infrastructure, causing electricity outages and flooding homes and farmland in Greater Cape Town and the Overberg, Overstrand and Winelands regions.
Unprecedented rainfalls were recorded, with the Overberg receiving 142.6mm at the new weather station from September 24 to 26. Stellenbosch measured 194.2mm over the same period, and 141.8mm was recorded at the Molteno Dam in Cape Town, according to data supplied by the SA Weather Service.
By 2pm on Tuesday eight fatalities had been confirmed in Cape Town and four bodies in rural areas had been found, Western Cape development & planning MEC Anton Bredell reported at a media briefing.
Three passengers died and several were injured when a crosswind overturned a bus in Cape Town on Monday.
Bredell said consideration will be given to asking President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the SA National Defence Force engineering department to assist with fixing damaged roads.
Relief efforts are under way to assist the more than 1,000 households that had to be evacuated in the Cape Town metro area, while in the Winelands there were 588 displaced people.
Eighty-four provincial roads including the N2 remained closed with three more partially closed but this number is changing as the waters subside. The N2 at Botrivier washed away and remains impassable though there is an alternative route and Sir Lowry’s Pass has been opened. Chapman’s Peak Drive also remains closed.
Transport routes
Education deputy director-general Alan Meyer said 242 schools were affected (including low learner attendance) with 152 reporting varying levels of structural damage due to the storm and 16 being closed because of damage and the lack of access.
A preliminary figure of a 26% absenteeism was reported based on the 1,076 schools that submitted reports. This was largely due to learner transport routes being inaccessible.
Bredell estimated that in Cape Town about 1,500 structures involving 6,000 people were affected by the storm while in the Breede River Valley 2,000 families were cut off and 2,588 structures were affected in the Winelands.
He said about 20,000 people in Cape Town were without electricity and substations in Stanford and Hermanus tripped. Eskom is attending to the issues.
Some air traffic between Cape Town and George was delayed.
Bredell said that future infrastructure planning, for example on roads and bridges, will have to take climate change into account.
Western Cape transport & public works department spokesperson Jandre Bakker noted that there is some road damage on the West Coast with some areas cut off. He said 1,000 households in the metro have been affected.
Head of disaster medicine in the department of health Wayne Smith said some rural clinics have had to close because of affected access roads. Helicopters are being used to transport patients where necessary.
Head of the social development department Robert MacDonald said the department is working with humanitarian organisations including the SA Red Cross Society and NGOs to collect and distribute donations to affected areas.
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