Squatters living in low-lying areas on the Cape Flats spent yesterday mopping up as the sun finally appeared from behind dark clouds blanketing the Peninsula and dumping unusually high amounts of rain for November.
Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, Cape Town's disaster management spokesman, said although areas in Philippi East, Boys Town, Barcelona, Europe, Gcobasi, Thabo Mbeki, Monwabisi Park and Klipfontein Mission Station informal settlements were flooded, there were no emergencies.
It required only "a little rain" to cause flooding in those areas, said Solomons-Johannes, because they were located in areas in which the water table was very high.
The SA Weather Service yesterday measured its highest 24-hour rainfall for the province in Plettenberg Bay, where 45,2mm fell since Sunday evening. At Cape Town International Airport, only 15mm was measured.
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ER24 spokesman Tristan Wadeley said from Friday until yesterday morning the emergency ambulance service had responded to 86 accidents, most of them minor.
The Robinson Pass near Mossel Bay had been closed since Sunday and was reopened late last night after a petrol tanker overturned, blocking access to the road.
Solomons-Johannes said yesterday's sunny respite would be brief, with more rain expected for the rest of the week as another cold front made landfall tomorrow.
"Disaster management teams will continue to be on high alert for the remainder of the week with very cold and wet conditions expected on the western high ground," Solomons-Johannes said.
Many of those in the flooded informal settlements had decided to remain in their homes.
The city's disaster management distributed blankets and plastic sheeting for families caught up in the deluge.
Thembisile Qapha, a community leader at the Taiwan informal settlement in Site C, Khayelitsha, next to a retention pond and where a man died on Sunday from exposure, said residents had resorted to using crates as stepping stones.
Peter Johnstone, a climate change expert with the Climate Systems Analysis Group at UCT, said the weekend's deluge was caused by a low pressure system over the south-western Cape which had been blocked by a high pressure system coming from the Indian Ocean.
"Instead of moving quickly, it was blocked by the Indian Ocean high pressure system," Johnstone said.
He said it was difficult to predict how much rain would fall for any part of the year.
But when rain did arrive, it would be intensive.
quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on November 10, 2009
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