Storm Damage
Strong winds and heavy rain, coupled with thunderstorms on Monday, caused damages in areas in and about Buffalo City Metro (BCM), especially in informal settlements, causing electricity outages in most parts of Mdantsane.
The East London Aquarium s
’ overhead section was torn apart and the damage was estimated at about R100, 000, but fortunately no animals were hurt.
Eskom urged residents to practice extreme caution during heavy rains and to avoid any contact with exposed electric wires and cables as fallen electricity poles may result in live electrical wires lying on the ground or otherwise hanging low enough to endanger people.
Affected areas in Mdantsane included parts of zone 2,3,5,7, 11, 13, 15, 16 and Unit P due to an area fault that was caused by the heavy rains on Monday afternoon.
The outages also affected Reeston and Embekweni. This is according to the BCM communications department. In Mdantsane s NU10, there ’ were reports of roofs being blown off, while some houses in Zone 3 had large trees uprooted as a result of the strong winds.
Shacks from Mtsotso informal settlement in Mdantsane were also blown away by strong winds, and hundreds of residents were left in the cold as the water flooded their shacks, damaging some of their furniture.
Mtsotso community leader Siyasanga Gida said some believed it was a cyclone which lasted for about an hour that blew roofs off.
Mandisa Apleni, whose roof of an outside flat in Mdantsane s ’ Zone 10 blew off, said luckily no-one was injured.
The rain was too heavy and the strong wind removed the roof of my backyard flat. There was someone inside the flat, but they are fine but shocked,” she said.
Gida said shacks in Mtsotso were flooded with water and shack owners were forced to abandon their homes. Monday s storm made ’ matters worse for numerous families as they were already living in dilapidated homes. Most people in this area are “poor and don t have the means ’ to build proper houses. Some don t even know how “’ they will rebuild their shacks after the heavy rain which has damaged their homes.
All the people were asking “for is decent houses so that in the future they will not worry about a storm. Every time it rains, people experience the same challenges,” Gida said. East London Aquarium s ’ overhead section, about 10m by 5m in size, wooden pillars, and trusses, lay on the premises when DispatchLIVE arrived on Tuesday morning.
BCM acting senior manager of marine and zoological services Siani Tinley said the damage, though minimal, could have been worse.
At about 8pm on Monday, when those high winds estimated to be travelling around 60km/h, hit the beachfront, the undercover section that we have where the public sit, blew off and it blew across our wall and partially onto the Esplanade.
We were concerned that “the animals would be hurt as our pelican enclosure is very close by.
But on close checking last “night, after we received notice, we checked on all the animals and can safely say all were fine,” Tinley said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya had not responded to questions at the time of writing on Tuesday.
Provincial transport department spokesperson Unathi Binqose on Tuesday said no major road accidents were reported.
In a statement on Tuesday, Eskom Eastern Cape said their technicians were hard at work to restore electricity supply as soon as possible.
Eskom appeals for patience and advises customers to treat all electricity appliances as live during this period as electricity could be restored any time.”
The power utility said other affected areas include OR Tambo, Amathole and Alfred Nzo districts.
Komani in the Chris Hani district was also affected by the storm.