Downpours bring joy to some, misery for others

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Homes were flooded and evacuated while roads were completely washed away or submerged by water, as heavy downpours lashed several Wild Coast towns and other parts of the Eastern Cape on Monday.

According to the SA Weather Service, Port Edward received 100.4mm between 8am on Sunday and 8am on Monday. Coffee Bay received 104.8mm and Port St Johns 75.4mm.

At Coffee Bay some gravel roads were washed away and 10 guests leaving the popular Ocean View Hotel had to have their vehicles towed after being trapped in the muddy terrain.

For several parched areas of the province the rain brought welcome relief. East London and Mthatha received 35.4mm and 36.8mm, while Stutterheim (28mm) and Komani (21.8mm) also enjoyed the downpours.

No rain was recorded for drought-stricken Makhanda, but by 8am Port Alfred had received 15mm.

The SA Weather Service said heavy rainfalls would continue on Tuesday, particularly between the Fish River and Port Edward. It is expected to start clearing early on Wednesday.

But the wet weather, which turned many dirt roads to sludge, was not relished by all.

Ocean View Hotel general manager Marco Oosthuizen said the rain began on Sunday evening and did not relent.

“At about 7am [on Monday] you could still get over the bridge leading to the hotel, but half an hour later it was completely under water,” he said.

“From last night up until now we recorded about 120mm.”

Both Port St Johns mayor Nomvuzo Mlombile-Cingo and OR Tambo district municipal spokesperson Ayongezwa Lungisa said some families had been evacuated from the low-lying KwaGreen, a residential area between the town and Second Beach, after many of the houses were flooded.

Mlombile-Cingo said they had arranged to have everyone affected – about 130 – accommodated in the town hall.

A warning was issued to motorists not to attempt crossing low-lying bridges as their cars could be swept away.

Slippery road surfaces did not make driving any easier for holidaymakers heading home after the Easter weekend, which got off to the worst possible start when three people died in a collision between two cars outside Mthatha on Thursday.

Later the same day a teenage girl was killed in a two-car collision between Peddie and Makhanda.

On Sunday, four people died and three were injured in a head-on collision on the R61 in Nkalweni location in Engcobo.

An Iveco minibus travelling from Mthatha collided with a Hyundai Accent. “All the deceased were from the sedan. Overloading and speed have been cited as contributed factors,” said transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose.

In Buffalo City Metro, Mdantsane resident Nonhlanhla Gugushe, who shares her NU15 home with six family members, said every time it rained, water poured from pipes that had been incorrectly installed at a nearby construction site.

“The water comes directly into our property. We have to use bricks and blankets to prevent it from coming in, and when it does, we have to use buckets to take it out. This has even caused my family to get pneumonia.”

It was also a day of misery for the Milis family of eSantini informal settlement in Gonubie.

A large pool surrounded their house, and water seeping into a number of rooms destroyed almost all their furniture.

Neighbours flocked to help the family sweep the water out of the four rooms and salvage whatever they could.

Sylvia Milis, 62, shares the house with her daughter and grandchildren. The youngest is a 10-day-old baby boy.

Milis, wielding a broom, said their two-year stay in the RDP home was a nightmare when it rained, as it did not have sufficient stormwater drainage.

“We can’t continue living like this. We lived in a shack for seven years and we never had anything like this.”

She said their cries fell on deaf ears at BCM and the department of human settlements, and they had been told to build their own drainage system.

Human settlements spokesperson Simthandile Ford said the department would meet with BCM to create contingency plans for families affected by flooding as rain was expected to continue.

“We will assess how people can be put into safe alternative accommodation because we do not want people to be displaced.”

Several roads in the metro were flooded, including Windermere and Morningside.

Sports fixtures, including the T20 cricket match between the Warriors and Titans, had to be abandoned.

Heavy rain also ruined the final day of the fourth edition of the Cliffie Brown/Leon Meyer Easter football tournament scheduled for the North End Stadium, where seven cup finals were to be contested.

The East London Central Local Football Association tournament – which also served as CC Lloyd township-based Seagulls football club’s 100th anniversary event – will have to wait for this weekend to see seven trophies and prize money awarded to winners of various divisions, who had made it to the finals after gruelling knockout encounters since Friday.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said disaster management had not received any reports of flooded areas by Monday morning.

There were several vehicle collisions over the Easter Weekend, but no serious injuries had been reported, he added.

Steady rain continued throughout the day in Komani.

Enoch Mgijima municipality spokesperson Gcobani Msindwana said Queensview park in Komani had power outages because of the wet weather, and electricians were attempting to rectify the situation.

Transport spokesperson Khuselwa Rantjie said the bridge in Godini village in Ngqeleni had flooded, making it difficult for people to get across to the other side.