CAPE OF STORMS
Roads, rail, power and homes disrupted as torrential rain and winds batter Cape Town and surrounds
Heavy downpours in Cape Town have resulted in uprooted trees, stormwater overflows and in some cases, disruptions to train services and closure of roads. Relief efforts have kicked in with various organisations starting to assist communities affected by the wet winter weather conditions which are set to continue until well into the weekend.
Train services have been disrupted due to torrential rain in Cape Town, which started in the early hours of Wednesday 14 March. Roads in the metro were also closed due to widespread reports of flooding. The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management said rivers had burst their banks and an overflow had impacted a Somerset West Eskom sub-station.
Heavy rains caused waterfalls above Newlands Forest in Cape Town. (Photo: Brenton Geach)
The South African Weather Service warned of disruptive rainfall over the Cape metro into Thursday, which could lead to further flooding of roads and settlements.
The cold front experienced on Wednesday will be the “first in a succession of such systems, expected to pass through the Cape provinces in the week ahead, on an almost daily basis”. This includes the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
The weather service said cold, windy conditions with occasional showers will be a persistent feature of the weather over the southern half of the country, which will continue “until well after the long weekend”.
Disaster Risk Management spokersperson Charlotte Powell told Daily Maverick that the impact of the rain on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning had caused the “Jakkalsvlei Canal to burst its banks, as well as the Lourens River and the Kayser River”.
Heavy rains caused flooding in various areas of Nyanga in Cape Town. (Photo: Brenton Geach)
A flooded street in KTC near Gugulethu after Cape heavy rain.The SA Weather Service warned that the cold front that landed on Sunday evening is expected to persist throughout the week in the Western Cape. Photo: Supplied
Flooded street in KTC near Gugulethu after Cape heavy rains. (Photo: Supplied)
Flooding in the Cape. (Photo: Supplied)
Powel said there was flooding at the Johnson & Johnson factory in Tokai. The Lourens River overflow impacted the Somerset West Eskom sub-station, to which Powell said, “the City and Eskom are working together to restore the power in the Helderberg area,”.
Powell added, “various informal settlements in Philippi, Strand, Gugulethu, Mfuleni, Masiphumelele and Khayelitsha have been flooded”. The Disaster Risk Management Centre were still busy with assessments in the affected area.
“Sassa and other NGOs have been requested to provide humanitarian relief to the affected informal settlements,” said Powell. “Various roadways are affected by temporary storm-water overflows, uprooted trees and mud on the road surface,”.
Heavy rainfall has caused severe flooding in multiple parts of the Cape.
Read more: https://t.co/zOZqvmnNlB#capetownfloods pic.twitter.com/UPuE84fQWw— Cape {town} Etc (@CapeTownEtc) June 14, 2023
Train services disrupted
Metrorail Western Cape said they were operating a limited service on Wednesday due to “extreme weather conditions” after a tree fell on traction and signal power cables at Wittebome station on the Southern Line. The fallen tree affected the electrical overhead wires, which impacted the running of the train service.
“The temporary suspension of the train service is on the following corridors: Southern Line; Cape Flats Line; Central Line and the Northern Line,” said Metrorail Western Cape.
Relief organisations step in
Gift of the Givers has said they received calls from 4am on Wednesday morning, following distress calls from various settlements in the Western Cape who appealed for assistance. Ali Sablay, project manager of Gift of the Givers said thousands of residents were affected with “many homes completely flooded”. Gift of the Givers teams were deployed in hard-hit areas including Gugulethu, KTC, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Langa, Bishop Lavis, Mitchells Plain, Grabouw, Chatsworth, Atlantis and Strand.
Table Mountain. (Photo: Don Pinnock)
A flooded street in KTC near Gugulethu after Cape heavy rain.The SA Weather Service warned that the cold front that landed on Sunday evening is expected to persist throughout the week in the Western Cape. (Photo: Supplied)
“Gift of the Givers are distributing blankets, warm clothing and hot meals. Our teams will be visiting more areas in the coming days,” said Sablay in a statement on Wednesday. DM
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I look at all that water and I see opportunity and cash.
I see pain and sickness for the poor bliksems that have live in the sewer laden water.
If you dig up each of these mud tracks, no tarred roads here to destroy, and lay a drain 1m down. Made of the simplest material, recycled plastic pipe 160mm or more. The pipe has slots cut in it with an angle grinder and is covered by all the rubble that you can lay your hands on, all the way up to the surface, where it becomes the road.
All these drains lead to a central storm water drain where you have an access lid, where any plastic and sand can be removed. From here the water moves out of the built up area.
Then you access all this dirty water and clean it a bit with basic mesh filters, pump it from here to somewhere drier. The Western Cape mountains are hollow limestone which can be filled with water. The sand flats can absorb their own dry volume in water. Then you have a source of water which will clean itself as it passes through the ground and be extracted again later, years later. Then it can be sold for cash.