Floods have last word for Franschhoek boutique hotel
The five-star venue was due to reopen this month after having just recovered from flooding in June
Three months ago, staff at the five-star Last Word Franschhoek boutique hotel were told they had survived the worst floods in more than 40 years, albeit with a R7m repair bill.
After months of renovations, the venue was set to reopen this month with a flood of bookings.
But the plan was destroyed when another deluge last weekend almost washed away the hotel, causing an estimated R10m in damage.
“The entire interior and exterior of the hotel downstairs has been submerged in metres of water, which has deposited silt and mud throughout the property,” said MD Nicky Coenen.
“Two exterior boundary walls at the back of the property ... were knocked over by the force of the water,” she said, describing the damage as catastrophic.
“We moved heaven and earth to get the hotel back up and running by October 1 and would have achieved this.
“The new furniture had been delivered and was in storage in one of the rooms that was flooded ... The final touches were to be added this very week. We were so excited to reopen the hotel and welcome guests.
“Our bookings for the season were our strongest ever, almost 25% up on our preCovid figures. This would have been a record season for us and the village. After so much suffering during two years of Covid, and with the village still recovering in 2022 ... this year was set to be a really good one.”
The hotel has become a face of the devastation caused by heavy rain that has pummelled the Western Cape this year, causing billions of rands in damage. Several people have died and major roads are still closed after infrastructure destruction seldom seen before.
Franschhoek and the surrounding winelands have been particularly hard hit. They are situated close to Cape Town’s main rainfall catchment area and the giant Theewaterskloof Dam, which at one stage this week was 115% full. The town received almost 300mm of rain in just over 24 hours, almost five times the average for September.
Coenen accused the Stellenbosch municipality of failing to improve stormwater systems to cope with the number of new developments in the town.
She said vegetation in the upland area was cleared to make way for development, leaving the area around the hotel vulnerable to flooding.
In June, the municipality said the rain was the worst in 45 years “and the storm systems cannot cope with this amount of water”, she said.
“The local municipality has allowed development in the Franschhoek area without sufficiently upgrading stormwater systems that have been in place for many, many years.”
The latest flood damage was worse than that of June, she added.
“The silt and mud levels are far higher and walls, roads and bridges have collapsed and been washed away, which never happened in June’s event. Last Word Franschhoek has about six tonnes of mud that has to be removed from the interior and exterior of the property.”
After June’s floods, the hotel urged the council to attend to the town’s vulnerability, but hit a brick wall, Coenen said.
“We were told that some of the senior management were too busy to meet us and so junior engineers were sent to the on-site meeting.
“We expect to be closed until at least March 2024. However, the part of the village we are in is at the mercy of the local council [regarding] infrastructure failure.”
Stellenbosch council spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar said the stormwater systems were not designed to deal with the volume of water experienced in the latest deluge.
“Stormwater systems are designed and maintained to deal with large volumes of water, but there is no stormwater system in the world that can effectively deal with what was experienced last weekend,” he said.
“The municipality has been hard at work to ensure roads are reopened, damage to critical infrastructure is addressed, water supply is reinstated and electricity supply is restored, not only in Franschhoek but across the entire municipal area.
“Additional financial and human resources have been allocated towards expediting repairs and emergency contractors have also been appointed. We thank residents and business owners who have rolled up their sleeves and joined municipal teams in getting Franschhoek back in business again,” said Grobbelaar.
The Cape Chamber of Commerce & Industry this week confirmed substantial damage, with the impact of last weekend’s floods on agriculture alone amounting to R1.4bn.
“We are particularly concerned about the latest impact given [the floods] came just three months after the last flooding incident that devastated the citrus-growing areas around Clanwilliam and Citrusdal, as well as the winelands. Many businesses had barely recovered from the last ordeal, only to be hit again by major damage,” the chamber said.