Floods leave 10 000 homeless
2008-07-07 09:29
Maygene de Wee
Cape Town - Three people have died and at least 10 000 residents of 23 informal settlements have been left homeless, after heavy rain wreaked havoc in the Cape Peninsula over the weekend.
Cape Town Disaster Management said 3 600 buildings had been flooded.
The South African Weather Service sent out a national warning that more rain is expected in the next 24 hours.
Twelve parts of the Cape Metropole have been identified as high-risk areas, while the rest of the Western Cape is not as badly affected.
The head of the fire department and disaster management in the Overberg, Reinard Geldenhuys, said it had rained on Saturday night, but not heavily. Rescue and diving teams were, however, on standby.
Two die crossing raging river
Two men drowned when they tried to cross the raging Boontjies River in Citrusdal on Saturday night. A third man survived and managed to reach a nearby farm.
Rescue workers retrieved the body of one of the men from the river early on Sunday morning.
Rescue dogs and members of the police's diving unit were still searching for the second man late on Sunday. Their identities are not known.
A Citrusdal resident said 104mm of rain had fallen by Sunday afternoon.
Elsewhere, an accident on the R44 near Kogelberg claimed the life of a 35-year-old man on Sunday morning.
A traffic department spokesperson, Merle Lourens said: "It would appear as if the car skidded and the driver lost control and drove into the mountain."
A fifteen-year-old girl was injured in the accident. Their names were not yet available.
45 road accidents
Forty-five accidents have been reported in the Peninsula since Thursday, with 10 of these on Sunday.
Several of Cape Town's busiest roads were closed to traffic. The M5, Racecourse Road, Table Bay Boulevard and parts of the M3 were closed for short times on Sunday morning. The road between Constantia Nek and Constantia Road was also closed for traffic on Sunday due to mudslides.
Morreesburg residents who live near the river were evacuated after 37mm of rain fell over the weekend.
ID Mayoral Committee for Economic, Social Development and Tourism, Simon Grindrod, asked on Sunday that emergency funds to help homeless people be made available by the Western Cape Premier, Ebrahim Rasool. Grindrod was to organise an urgent mayoral committee meeting to discuss the possibility of providing more aid to flood victims.
Twelve areas have been identified as possible flood risks: Kosovo and Sweet Home in Philippi; TL, CT, QQ sections and the Barney Molokwana area in Khayelitsha; Masiphumelele near Kommetjie; Lotuspark, Kanana and New Rest in Guguletu; Doornach in Table View and Gqobasi in Nyanga.
Michael Jacobs of the Red Cross said they had been handing out blankets and food parcels non-stop in flooded areas since Thursday night.
Dam levels
Water levels in Cape dams were looking good though, said Farouk Robertson, spokesperson for the Water and Sanitation Department.
The Western Cape's biggest dams - the Steenbras Dam, Wemmershoek, Voëlvlei and Theewaterskloof Dam - were all between 75% and 80% full.
This compares well to last year's levels, when the dams were 77% full around the same time.
- Die Burger