The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management (DRM) says adverse weather conditions have affected over 2 000 structures.
Spokesperson Charlotte Powell says they have received over 100 reports of incidents of uprooted and damaged trees since Saturday.
Powell says relevant city departments are dealing with burst pipes, electricity outages and managing remaining road closures.
“In many instances, affected residents are sheltering with friends and family. The DRM has arranged humanitarian relief through its NGO partners, while the Roads Department is assisting with the provision of sand in some areas.
“More than 100 incidents of uprooted/damaged trees have been reported since Saturday. These incidents are being attended to by Recreation and Parks and the Traffic Service,” Powell adds.
On Monday, a security guard died after a tree fell on top of him in Paarl. The guard was conducting patrols on a four-wheeler at Diemersfontein Farm when strong winds uprooted the tree.
School closures
Meanwhile, schools in the Overberg, the Cape Winelands and Helderberg remain closed for a second day following severe storms over the weekend.
In the video below, Western Cape Education Director of Communications, Bronagh Hammond, provides more details about school closures:
In George, torrential rain overnight has caused flooding in several parts of the town and also in parts of the Little Karoo. This comes as the low-pressure system from Cape Town and the surrounding area has made landfall on the Garden Route.
Several passes, including the Outeniqua, Meiringspoort and Swartberg, were closed for safety reasons.
The massive downpours resulted in localised flooding across the town. Up to 180 mm of rain fell during the early hours of Tuesday morning.
George Mayor Leon van Wyk says, “Within George, we had around 100 mm of rain over that period of time up till 8 this morning. and in the mountains, it looks like up to 180 mm of rain. As a result of that our dam is now overflowing and is full once again which is quite amazing how much water actually fell. so there’s been a fair amount of damage around and the water runoff affecting many houses and so there are many residents sitting with wet houses and wet type of conditions today.”
