Cape storm & fires: dramatic pics .
The Western Cape is reeling after devastating fires hit Knysna and a storm wreaked havoc on the province
NO ONE saw it coming. For days the Western Cape had been concentrating on the “monster storm” barrelling in from the north, expected to unleash gales of up to 150 km/h, dump torrential rains on the drought-ravaged province and turn the ocean into a heaving tempest.
So everyone was busy battening down the hatches when the first reports of fire in the Eden District came through on Wednesday 7 June. At first it was little more than a snippet on traffic reports: the N2 between Knysna and George is closed due to a veld fire; motorists are requested to find alternative routes or avoid the area altogether.
But as the hours went by the flames – fanned by strong berg winds in 35 °C heat – had roared out of control, turning the idyllic holiday destination into an Armageddon-like hell.
It would be nearly two days before the blaze was brought under control and by that time no part of Knysna had been left untouched. More than 10 000 people had to be evacuated, five people had died and more than 300 properties had been destroyed.
In neighbouring Plettenberg Bay, beach-front homes – including 25 on the socalled Millionaire’s Row in Robberg – had been razed to the ground.
“It was a perfect storm,” said Clive Afri-
ca, the area’s district community management head. “Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”
ACCOUNTS of the behaviour of the fire would sound almost far-fetched if the evidence wasn’t there to back them up. It was nature at its most ferocious, almost toying with the firemen who tried to contain it. Visuals of the flames show it flowing almost lava-like down hillsides, consuming everything along the way.
The blaze is even said to have jumped from one of the Knysna Heads to the other. The Heads, the two towering cliffs at the entrance to the Knysna Lagoon, are separated by about 200 m of water – but all it took was a glowing ember blown across the chasm for the destruction to carry on.
One family, living deep in the forest in Elandskraal near Sedgefield, didn’t stand a chance. Madre Johnston (33), who was eight months pregnant, perished along with her husband, Tony (34), and their three-year-old son, Michael, as they tried to flee the flames. “We’re all completely destroyed,” Linda Truscott, Madre’s sister, said. “We really thought they would make it out safely.”
Dawie van der Ryst, cousin of 7de Laan actress Annelize van der Ryst (69) who plays Matrone on the popular soap, died of a heart attack while fleeing his Knysna home with his wife and dogs.
“He turned around to take one last look at his house and possessions, then collapsed and died,” Annelize said.
“It was the perfect storm. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong’ ‘We’re all completely destroyed’
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Fireman Bradley Richards (24) sustained burns to 70 percent of his body and died in a George hospital. His colleague Ian Barnard was still in hospital with serious burns at the time of going to print. “The fire changed direction while the men were fighting it,” says Charlene Theron of Firstcare Wildfire Support. “They both jumped into the fire truck but it wouldn’t start and they had to run away. They’re both fit men but such a fire can spread very fast.”
One resident, who was evacuated by boat across the lagoon from the Belvidere area, recalls looking back and seeing one tree after another going up in flames. “They looked like Christmas trees,” she says. “Everything was lighting up – pop, pop, pop.”
Many residents, including Chanel Lotter of ravaged nearby Brenton-on-Sea, fled with just the clothes on their backs. “But if we have to live in tents for the next few weeks, that’ll be all right. We can be so grateful. We might have lost a home but some people lost their lives.”
Authorities say it will take years for the region to recover but, as the owner of a local coffee shop says, “We’ll be okay. We have no choice. We have to carry on.”
FOR Capetonians it was hard to believe there were conditions conducive to runaway wildfires just 450 km away. The storm that forecasters had been warning of for days was lashing the Cape Peninsula – although at first many thought it was going to turn out to be a damp squib.
Then the gales started and the Atlantic Ocean began churning. Despite authorities’ warnings to stay away from the Sea Point promenade, people flocked to the shore to watch the spectacle.
Whipped by the wind, the sea soon resembled a monstrous milkshake as foam flew across the road, covering cars and people and spilling into shops and garage forecourts several hundred metres from the shoreline.
Two ships in the Cape Town harbour broke their mooring lines and vehicles at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay were door-handle deep in seawater.
“We had a spring tide and high winds that created a storm surge,” explains Dr Neville Sweijd, operations manager for the Africa Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science (Access). “It was a case of two exceptional events in unison.”
The storm was caused by an intense cold front associated with very low pressure, says Hannelee Doubell, external
‘Winter is impossible to predict long-term so we need to be properly prepared’
communications manager for the South African Weather Service.
But, although it was touted as the biggest storm to hit the region in 30 years, it wasn’t as a result of El Niño “or anything like that”, Sweijd says. “Having said that, though, on a long-term scale we do expect some changes to typical weather,” he adds. “This could result in more intense climate and weather systems and more frequent storms.”
Eight people lost their lives in the storm, trees were uprooted across the peninsula, roofs were blown off, power was lost and informal settlements flooded.
“This is winter – it can happen again,” Doubell says. “Winter is impossible to predict long-term so we need to be properly prepared because of the inequality of our society. People are not able to protect themselves or build structures in such a way to come out of these events unscathed.”
So did the storm help boost the Cape’s The first snowfall of the winter hit the Ceres region after the storm.
Sdismal dam levels? “It’s too early to tell,” Sweijd says. “But this is what we need: lots of these rain-bearing storms. Just because we had one storm doesn’t mean the crisis is over. We need plenty more in order to play catch-up.”