Cape Town - A fallen tree, numerous road accidents and flooding hit the city on Wednesday following warnings from the South African Weather Service of disruptive rain and strong winds over Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, Overberg District and Swartland Municipality in Western Cape.
Cape Town Weather Office forecaster Samkelisiwe Thwala said the heavy weather was expected to continue until Sunday, although Cape Town would be spared from rain over the weekend, with clear skies expected.
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“The wind is expected to turn south to south-westerly on Thursday and strengthen on Friday afternoon (50-60km/h) south of Saldanha Bay moderating from Saturday afternoon.
“Furthermore, south-westerly to southerly swells of 4m to 5m are expected between Cape Columbine and Plettenberg Bay on Thursday as well as Saturday into Sunday,” the weather service said.
Lansdowne councillor Mark Kleinschmidt received reports of flooding and said the volume of rain experienced was more than usual, and stormwater drains could not contain the huge volume of rain water.
“Service requests were logged with the City of Cape Town and teams were deployed to assist residents where required,” he said.
Langa ward councillor Thembelani Nyamakazi said heavy rains always impacted severely on the community, some roads were inaccessible because of flooding.
“I wish they (the City) can deploy more teams on the ground to deal with this, not wait until reports are received to deal with the floods. We need services like regular stormwater drain cleaning,” Nyamakazi said.
Meanwhile, a tree toppled in Sussex Road, Wynberg on Wednesday morning as a result of strong winds and rain, although ward councillor Carmen Siebritz said the incident was reported and attended to within an hour.
Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesperson Charlotte Powell said no major incidents were reported and when they were, officials made assessments and coordinated various City departments and external role-players to assist communities affected.
Local government MEC Anton Bredell added that according to the Disaster Risk Management Centre, there was some localised flooding in the city, specifically in informal settlements, Swartland and along the West Coast, which City and District disaster management teams attended to.
“Each year we are faced with the challenges experienced by vulnerable communities in informal settlements, often located in places which are not suitable for habitation. The Government and private sector partners do active community outreach work in this regard,” Bredell said.
In terms of prevention, Bredell said all the municipalities in the Western Cape had programmes in place to ensure stormwater drains and culverts are kept clean and free of obstructions for maximum water capacity.
