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Floods claim two, cut off town
24/08/2006 23:37 - (SA)
Editorial staff and Sapa, Die Burger
Cape Town - A man has drowned and another has been reported missing in the Southern Cape where heavy rain continued on Thursday, causing rivers to burst their banks.
Captain Malcolm Pojip said 45-year-old Daniel Boesak of George had tried to cross the flooded Molin River in the town.
He had tried to cross where a bridge had been washed away during a recent flood.
Pojip said a man had been reported missing at Riversdale after people had seen him being washed away in the swollen Goukou River.
He added that the Kaaiman's Pass, between George and Wilderness, had been closed to traffic because of mudslides.
Meanwhile, the Cape Town regional office of the SA Weather Bureau forecast the possibility of further rain at George on Thursday night, progressively decreasing with the likelihood of sunny skies by noon on Friday.
Two large dams being monitored
Pojip said about 85 people had been evacuated from their homes and that 173 houses had been affected by the floods.
Many who had been evacuated earlier in the week had returned to their homes.
Rescue personnel were also anxiously monitoring two large farm dams in the Swellendam area.
Meanwhile, Montagu has again been cut off from the outside world, the second time in a month, while Riversdale and surrounding towns in the Eden district also have been affected.
The municipal manager of Hessequa municipality at Riversdale, Johan Jacobs, said they didn't have money to repair the damage, estimated at R10m.
The Goukou River that burst its banks caused the most damage. Flood waters damaged a sewage farm as well as a caravan park. About 300 people have been left homeless.
sewerage pipeline damaged
Montagu teacher Alton Sauwer says the roads to Cape Town and Ashton and Touws River have been closed, and some suburbs in Montagu have been cut off. Children were unable to go to school on Thursday.
Among roads that were closed to traffic on Thursday were the Garcia Pass at Riversdale; the road between Suurbraak and Barrydale; to Suurbraak from the N2; between Heidelberg and Suurbraak; to Botlierskop (near Klein Brak River) and Friemersheim (near Groot Brak).
Roy Veldtmann of the emergency operational centre in Robertson said a sewerage pipeline in McGregor was seriously damaged.
"Lives have not been endangered and an air force helicopter is monitoring the area," he said
Juani Walters reports that several people have left their homes in Suurbraak, and drinking water is being trucked to the town.
The joint operational centre in George says Riversdale and Heidelberg have been the hardest hit.
Warning about severe storms
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said the Hessequa mayor "gave me the assurance that the humanitarian crisis was being handled well and people were being given food, blankets and temporary accommodation".
Gishma Abrahams reports from Port Elizabeth that the weather office has cautioned people about severe storms on Friday.
This comes just weeks after estimated damage of at least R310m was caused in the Eastern Cape by heavy snow and floods.
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