Dangerous waves head for Durbs
2007-03-19 14:43
Verashni Pillay
Durban - Police officers with loudhailers were urging shop owners and residents along Durban's coast to be on alert as big waves were expected to strike the Durban beachfront.
"The entire Marine Parade is quite unsafe," police spokesperson superintendent Vincent Mdunge told News24 on Monday afternoon. He listed Durban North, Balito, Isipingo and Umvoti as other areas in danger.
The warning came in the wake of mass flooding in these areas as Durban weather services noted record swell sizes along the Durban coast on Monday morning.
"We are at the equinox spring high," said Colin Anderson, part of the forecasting team at the Durban International airport Weather Office. "But it is at the highest it has been for 18 years because the sun, moon and earth were in a straight line."
Swells of over 6m
Anderson pointed out that this coupled with "a very deep low pressure system" off the southeast coast of East London that developed on the weekend, adding an extra 3 to 4m to the swells.
"We now have swells at over 6m on our coast," he told News24 on Monday. "At the high tide earlier this morning at 02:00 some extremely high swells broke on the coast causing damage."
Anderson confirmed police reports that the situation would worsen at 16:00 as well as 04:00 because of the lunar affect on the swells. "Winds are expected to persist southwest galeforce for another 18 to 20 hours and will then begin to moderate, and the swells will go down after 36 hours once the wind moderates."
The biggest waves were expected at 16:00 on Monday and 04:00 on Tuesday, Anderson said.
Police were already warning people along the beachfront, according to Steers owner, Mohamed Valiallah, whose shop on Lower Marine Parade was badly damaged in this morning's flooding.
"It's really bad," he told News24. "We won't open for another month."
The restaurant, which is situated about 20m from where the beach sand begins, incurred damages of about R1m.
Valiallah said that six staff members were taken to hospital but were released on Monday with no serious injuries.
- News24