TEARS IN CAPE OF STORMS
Flooding, snow and gale-force winds wreak havoc across Western Cape
● Penelope Mthiyane feared the worst as her daughter screamed: “Mama, mama, the children!”
Corrugated iron projectiles flew as strong gusts of wind tore apart the four-bedroom shack she shares with eight grandchildren at Monwabisi Beach in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
Miraculously, they escaped unscathed. But worse was to come when cold fronts made landfall last weekend and wreaked havoc across the province. It has applied for a provincial disaster classification from the National Disaster Management Centre to deal with a growing humanitarian crisis.
Mthiyane, 51, said: “I’m still scared. When I hear the wind, I start shaking.”
Flooding and gale-force winds had by Friday affected at least 100,000 people, damaged 33,000 structures and claimed the life of a man who drowned after falling into a canal in Cape Town. Heavy snow blocked mountain passes, scores of schools and roads were temporarily closed, along with some clinics, in a week of drama. Thousands of residents were left without electricity.
“We have a huge humanitarian situation to deal with and all authorities are working together to address this,” said local government, environmental affairs and development planning MEC Anton Bredell.
“I was crying on Sunday and emotional,” said Mthiyane, who slept on her couch that night in a hastily rebuilt, basic one-room shelter — without a roof. And then came the rain, soaking her blankets.
A few hundred kilometres to the northwest, in the early hours of Monday morning, the 18 Filipino crew members aboard a Panama-registered 124m cargo vessel, the MV Ultra Galaxy, abandoned the listing ship and squeezed into an enclosed 3m-wide life raft. They were tossed about by 6m waves for several hours off the Cape’s west coast before being found.
“They were very lucky. They spent a night in that life raft and it must have been absolutely atrocious,” said Steve Cameron-Dow, co-owner of the local hake longline vessel Malachite that came to their rescue.
“When our vessel reached them some of the crew were in a state of shock and cold. The skipper decided to load the coldest of them into our engine room, because that’s the warmest part of the boat. They huddled together and fell asleep there.
“One crewman was treated for a bruised leg and cut on his foot. Our crew gave them all clothes and we fed them soup and tea and coffee. They were dropped at St Helena Bay early Tuesday morning and have since been transferred to Cape Town where the Philippine embassy is processing their travel documents to return home.”
Now salvage crews are working to avert a potential environmental spill after the ship ran aground at a remote coastal area known as Duiwegat, south of Brand se Baai. There are concerns about 500t of bunker fuel and bags of ammonium nitrate fertiliser aboard.
Veteran salvor Captain Nick Sloane, who salvaged the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy in 2012, raised concerns about a potential explosion should the ammonium nitrate mix with diesel fuel. “I believe some of the hatch covers are already off — so hopefully the cargo gets flushed with the heavy surf before it can do real damage. Five-hundred tonnes of bunkers can do a lot of damage — and as the current at present is heading down the coast, it could cover quite a large stretch of coastline.”
Salvage teams have been “confronted by bitterly cold, wet and very windy weather conditions ... predicted to endure till next week,” the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) said. “Expert salvage teams are now on site conducting a survey of the surrounding areas and the vessel. All efforts are focused on preparing the equipment that will allow salvors to access the vessel once the heavy weather subsides.”
Speaking about the ordeal that initially left them homeless last Thursday, Mthiyane said: “I could not see anything — our house fell apart on top of us. I just heard my daughter screaming: ‘Mama, mama, the children!’ She ran to the room where they were to fetch them but a part of the roof collapsed on her.” The neighbours were screaming.
Her grandchildren, visiting for the school holidays, were sent to family in Harare while she remained behind to rebuild their home — huddling around a fire at night, exposed to the elements. NGOs provided her with food parcels and blankets. “We lost everything — the chest of drawers, wardrobe, everything. We only found a school shoe of one of my grandchildren.”
Kelly Botha, 25, from Goodwood, found herself having to wade home across flooded roads when it was too dangerous for her ehailing driver to take her to work.
“I was very hesitant to move through the strong stream not only because of my fear and not being able to swim but if I fell into the water the likelihood of getting run over by a car was high, but I had to try. I managed to cross the road and from there I could hold onto the fences and walls of the houses on my way to where I needed to be.”
Roofs were torn off houses in the suburb of Wynberg while the interior town of Citrusdal was cut off from the rest of the province. Some of the worst affected areas are Khayelitsha, Lwandle in Strand, Nomzamo, Gugulethu, Masiphumelele, Macassar, Sir Lowry’s Pass, Mfuleni, Tafelsig and Vygieskraal, and Ocean View.
NGOs providing humanitarian relief include Gift of the Givers, Islamic Relief, Ashraful Aid, Living Hope, Mustadafin Foundation and Al-Imdaad.
There was no respite from the bitterly cold and wet weather with an orange level 6 warning issued for disruptive rain on Saturday over the southern parts of Witzenberg, Drakenstein, and Stellenbosch.
“A series of cold fronts are expected to affect the Western and Northern Cape until Sunday. The public and small stock farmers are advised that intermittent heavy rainfall, snowfalls, very cold conditions, strong coastal and interior winds and very rough seas can be expected,” said the SA Weather Service.
Concern was also mounting over rising dam and river levels in the province.
The extreme weather resulted in some unusual encounters after an otter appeared in the driveway of a property in Mitchells Plain and penguins were spotted frolicking on a flooded road at Stony Point near the penguin colony in Betty’s Bay.