Extreme weather and floods forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people and left two dead in the Western Cape this week, while snow fell in the Eastern Cape.
The South African Weather Service says another cold front and snow is expected over the Western Cape today and tomorrow.
Stellenbosch resident Christo Hendriksz told the Sunday Times how his three daughters, aged 8, 4 and 2, were rescued by firefighters on Wednesday after they became trapped upstairs.
He said the water began pouring into their home in the upmarket neighbourhood of Boord at about 7am.
“It was like a flash flood. About 40 minutes later on the ground floor of our home the water level was chest height,” he said.
“I very quickly moved everybody up the stairs and away from the ground floor where the water was. I still shuttled to and from between floors trying to rescue some of our property.”
He became isolated. “The door to the stairs was forced shut by the water. I could not reach my wife and kids on the stairs. I could hear them screaming.
“Then a window out to the stoep broke and the water started streaming out. I managed to get out and wade my way to safety through water that reached up to my belt. When I reached the outside our entire street had turned into a river,” Hendriksz said.
At around 8am the fire department arrived.
“We did not call them, but they rescued our three daughters.”
Hendricksz was unable to estimate the value of the damage to their house. “I can say it is substantial. The entire ground floor is pretty much destroyed.”
In Philippi, Cape Town, heavily pregnant Nomthandazo Dyini, 43, was worried that she would go into labour this weekend and an ambulance would not be able to reach her due to the flooding.
“My shack is filled with water and my cupboards and clothes are floating. All the food has been damaged,” she said.
I am concerned that an ambulance will not be able to reach my home should my waters break
— Heavily pregnant Philippi resident Nomthandazo Dyini
“I am pregnant and bedridden. I don’t even know what I will eat right now.”
Dyini said she has lived in the area for the past six years. “We go through this every winter. But this year, the weather is brutal,” she said.
“There is a tiny spot in our shack that is not affected. We are all crammed here. My neighbour also moved in with us because her shack is flooded. Her furniture is floating in the water,” said Dyini.
“Vehicles are unable to access the settlement because of the flooding. I am concerned that an ambulance will not be able to reach my home should my waters break.”
Community leader Zanele Ngcobondwana said there were about 2,000 shacks along the railway line in Philippi.
“The damage is huge. We are worried about the children in the community. Their shoes are floating in the water. Groceries are wet. There is no food.
“There are many elderly people here. It’s difficult to get help for them. We are overwhelmed,” she said.
A 64-year-old man was found dead in his home in Vredendal on the West Coast on Saturday, bringing the death toll in the Western Cape in the past week to two.
Colin Deiner, head of Western Cape disaster management, said: “We evacuated about 20 people from the area, but this resident chose to stay in his home. He was found dead this morning."
Another Western Cape resident drowned earlier in the week. “Three people tried to cross the Buffeljags River and one of them was swept away by the water,” Deiner said. “Unfortunately, we can't release the names of the two deceased people yet.”
Evacuations in problem areas continued yesterday.
“We are evacuating the Klawer area downstream from Clanwilliam as a precautionary measure.”
Francois Engelbrecht, professor of climatology and director of the Global Change Institute at Wits University, said while seasonal cold fronts moving in from the Atlantic were normal there had been a lot more of them this year, resulting in above-average winter rainfall.
“We have quite an exceptional number of consecutive cold fronts coming up, and we are expecting this wet weather to continue until Wednesday.”
Jan Vermeulen of the South African Weather Service told the Sunday Times some snow had fallen on Ben Macdhui — a 3,001m peak in the Eastern Cape.
“We are expecting another cold front to hit the Western Cape somewhere between Sunday evening and Monday. This cold front should bring some snow. According to our forecast, the most snow will fall on the Matroosberg mountain range with 1-15cm expected.”
“Unfortunately, our forecast of seasonal rainfall in winter time is not nearly as good as we are with predicting in summer rain. One reason is that El Nino (climate pattern that describes the cooling of surface-ocean water) really helps us with the forecast in summer. But in wintertime, El Nino and La Nina are usually very weak or they don't exist at all and they can't help as much of the winter forecast.”
“It's easy to predict for the next few days because we can see on the satellite picture where the cold fronts are, and then we use the weather prediction models to predict where they will move in the next few days. But to predict how they will behave on average or what will happen next winter is something we do not have. The science is not yet good enough to tell us what is to happen as far as winter rains. We have not proven that it can be done.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.