Cape Town mops up

2009-06-08 08:41

Mariam Michaels, her son Abdul Malik, and Mymoena Moosa were in the Junction Hotel when it collapsed. (Nasief Manie, Die Burger)

Nikky Oosthuizen and Marelize Barnard

Cape Town - Soaked residents of flooded suburbs in the Mother City will get the opportunity to dry out their wet clothes and bedding this week, as sunny weather is expected.

The heavy rains and rising water levels over the weekend hit residents of the Cape Flats especially hard. The flooding affected at least 2 693 families.

Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for disaster management, said it had not been necessary to move people on the Cape Flats somewhere else or to organise emergency accommodation.

Building collapses

About 70 residents of the 110-year-old Junction Hotel in Salt River had to hurriedly evacuate the shaking, rumbling building before part of it collapsed.

Years of seasonal rain damage and a lack of maintenance finally caused the building’s demise.

Resident Mymoena Moosa said she was awake when the rumbling started at about 04:00. “The noise was like that of a tornado. My husband and I had just fled to the back of the building when a part of my living room collapsed.”

The residents have been moved to Blikkiesdorp as the rest of the Junction Hotel has been declared unsafe, she said.

Flooding

Widespread, heavy rain on Friday night flooded some roads and mountain passes.

The Franschhoek pass had to be closed after mud washed over the road, making the driving surface unsafe for motorists.

Provincial traffic department spokesperson Xenophone Wentzel said the pass would be closed until Tuesday so that the road could be cleaned up.

At Rooi Els near Gordons Bay, there was a rock slide on Sunday afternoon.

“Especially flooded passes and road surfaces caught motorists off guard. But there were fortunately not a lot of accidents,” said Wentzel.

Rainy weather

Niek Koegelenberg, forecaster at the Cape Town weather office, said there was nothing strange about this kind of rainy weather in the Cape winter months.

Powell added that residents of Guguletu, Brown’s Farm in Philippi and Khayelitsha had especially had problems keeping their homes from flooding.

Flood assistance packages were distributed to these residents.

All Cape municipalities tasked with emergency services worked around the clock to help people in need with clean-up operations.  “Cape Town’s disaster management remains in a state of alert,” said Powell.

- Die Burger