Cape Town - Capetonians awoke to disruptive rains and harsh winds hitting the Mother City on Monday morning, followed by chaotic impacts of localised flooding in roads and informal/informal settlements as well as a number of trees falling over in Hanover Park, Newlands, Plumstead and Constantia.
This as the South African Weather Services (Saws) advised of a cold front which made landfall on Monday morning with strong to near-gale force winds in the Western Cape accompanied by wave heights of four to five metres.
Saws issued a warning for harsh wind and waves resulting in very rough and choppy seas as well as difficulty in navigation at sea expected between Saldanha Bay and Plettenberg Bay on Monday and Tuesday while winds moderate and waves subside from the west by late afternoon on Tuesday.
The weather service also issued a warning for storm surge resulting in localised damage to coastal infrastructure expected along the eastern parts of the south coast (Mossel Bay to Plettenberg Bay) from Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.
With the rainy conditions on Monday, road users were warned of slow moving traffic, delays and urged to allow for additional travelling time, but the roads across Cape Town were sites of chaos with many flooding, robots not working because of exacerbated load shedding, strong winds and reckless driving.
Trees were uprooted and fell into roadways in Westridge, Mitchells Plain, as well between Hanover Park Avenue and Govan Mbeki Road in Newlands, Plumstead Main Road by the Richmond Centre, and between Constantia Main Road and Belair Drive.
Grant McDonald, the Newlands and Cape Town area manager for Compass Towing, received a call on Monday morning for assistance where a tree had uprooted and crashed into three cars in the parking lot of the Sports Science Institute in Newlands.
McDonald said damage to the three cars – a VW Polo, a Toyota and a Ford Ranger – was quite severe, but fortunately the cars were empty and there were no injuries.
Meanwhile, flooding was found in Ottery Road in Philippi, Observatory, near the Shofar Church landmark, and the Wittebome station was flooded with water gushing down Castletown Road towards the South Road side.
Community services and health Mayco member Patricia van der Ross confirmed that the City sent teams out to all of these areas and all trees had been removed.
“A large branch of an oak tree broke and damaged three vehicles in Boundary Hall in Newlands. A tree branch broke in main road Kenilworth, no injuries or damages were reported. A tree fell on to Constantia Main Road, causing a three-car pile-up but no injuries were reported,” Van der Ross said.
City disaster risk management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said: “No incidents have been reported to the disaster operations centre. The City’s disaster risk management centre and related City departments are on standby, in the event of any localised or other weather-related impacts that could occur.”
kristin.engel@inl.co.za