Cape Town – The death toll from the severe weather conditions in the Western Cape reached nine on Thursday, the provincial government said.
“Unfortunately we need to announce there’s another fatality, we just received the news that we found a three-year-old body, bringing the total fatalities to nine since the disaster started,” Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said in a media briefing with his human settlements and finance counterparts.
The body of the child was found in a burnt-out building in Welbedacht, Knysna.
The Southern Cape town has been ravaged by fires, fanned by gale-force winds. On Wednesday, a family of three, a woman, her husband and their child, died in a fire in Rheenendal, outside Knysna.
The other deaths were in Cape Town, which experienced heavy rains, gale-force winds, thunder and lightning.
The fatalities included four people, who died in a fire in Kraaifontein caused by lightning, while another death was confirmed in Lavender Hill due to a building collapsing.
It was also announced the Knysna fire was moving towards Plettenberg Bay. At least 100 people have been evacuated from the Robber and Piesang Valley area. The rest of Plettenberg Bay has been placed on standby for possible evacuation.
The SANDF said five air force helicopters were on standby. Three would assist firefighters in Knysna while the other two would help with evacuations in the rest of the storm-hit Western Cape.
The choppers were, however, still grounded due to the weather. The army would also deploy troops to patrol Knysna to protect homes and businesses from looting in evacuated areas. At least 34 schools were destroyed in the province. Assessments were being done to determine damage to infrastructure and health facilities.