The Cape provinces in South Africa was at this weekend hit by severe torrential rain and gale winds, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
On Sunday, disaster management teams were on standby as the South African Weather Service reported that the previous Level 6 impact warning from heavy rains was upgraded to Level 9.
Since then, people living in the Cape regions were on high alert. The pictures below shows the ‘calm’ before the storm.
On Monday, Cape regions felt the full force of Mother Nature.
Reports of fallen trees, damage to property and power outages emerged as a number of areas were affected by the severe weather.
People were also forced to evacuate their homes.
Motorists were warned to avoid being on the roads but if they had to be on the roads, they were urged to take caution and use alternative routes as a number of road closures were implemented.
By Tuesday, the aftermath of the storm can be felt as assessments and mopping up operations were taking place. According to Disaster Management teams, at this stage, 12000 people have been affected by the storm. Eight people had died by electrocution during the floods.
In terms of infrastructure, there was a bridge collapse in Sandvlei, Macassar which is being attended to and the Wemmershoek Dam has been opened at stage 1.
A fallen tree caused a burst water pipe in Kloof Nek, Camps Bay and in Simon’s Town, Fire and Rescue assisted with the uprooted pine trees that fell on a housing structure.
IOL