Storm damage stymies Crow work
THE effects of Durban’s superstorm in October is still having an impact at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (Crow) during its busiest season.
It is waiting for eThekwini Municipality to repair a gaping hole outside the house that accommodates international volunteers who come with muchneeded skills.
“We have had to cancel the visits of three volunteers who would have come here at the beginning of November,” said director Paul Hoyte.
One is a veterinary technician from the US and two are veterinary nurses from Britain. “That calibre of volunteer cannot give much of their time,” he said.
“They help activities such as keeping animals mentally stimulated while in cages, rescues, releases, preparing food and cleaning enclosures.”
Crow leases its grounds from the municipality.
“The trouble is that only the municipality may work on this,” he said, worried that the looming builders’ holiday would delay things even further.
Cracks are starting to appear on a wall of the volunteers’ house, which is standing empty, and a Telkom telephone pole also stands dangerously close to the hole. Two wooden cabins housing staff are also within metres of the crater.
Hoyte said it had been caused by water exposing a fracture in a stormwater drain that “sucked away a portion of our land”.
He said he had been in contact with the municipality the day after the October 10 storm, only to be informed of its backlog. He said his requests for advice on what to do had also fallen on deaf ears.
The storm lashed through the Crow property in Yellowwood Park, damaging and flooding the enclosure as well as the clinic.
The only fatality was a baby mongoose, although many birds brought in had died before they could be saved.
Hoyte himself broke his ankle during the pandemonium.
eThekwini Municipality had not responded at the time of going to press.