City gears up for extreme cold and ‘severe flooding’

EXTREME cold and wet weather is expected this week in the Western Cape, and the City of Cape Town is gearing up for severe flooding in some parts of the city.

The South African Weather Service says showers are expected to linger.

“Another system is expected to affect the Cape Metropole tomorrow evening into Thursday when a 60% chance of showers and thundershowers are expected. At this stage 10-20mm can be expected with up to 30-40mm over the mountainous areas of the metro and the Winelands. Another weaker cold front is expected on Saturday evening into Sunday morning with about 5mm expected,” Cape Town Weather Office forecaster Michael Barnes said.

Barnes said the localised flooding alert was a “Watch” which includes some uncertainty in the forecast.

A cut-off low is expected to approach from the west tomorrow, bringing rain for the western parts of the Western Cape in the evening, into Thursday morning.

The City of Cape Town said that its Disaster Risk management Centre is on standby for any incidents.

“Over the years we have managed to reduce the number of areas that have been affected by severe flooding and severe rains,” mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said. He said 29 informal settlements – most along the N2 strip and Khayelitsha – were considered high-risk because of their location.

“Some are in wetlands and natural water courses and will need to be relocated to higher ground,” Smith said.

He said that they would engage with social security agency Sassa to ensure that they deploy “timeous humanitarian relief ” to those affected by flooding.

“Various City services have been placed on standby,” Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said.

Sassa Western Cape confirmed it was ready to supply disaster relief. “Sassa has the capacity to provide humanitarian relief to distressed communities,” said spokesperson Shivani Wahab.