Gauteng downpour causes chaos, kills teenage girl

Workers battle to drain the overflowed Smit Street off-ramp in Braamfontein caused by the storm in Joburg. Picture: Itumeleng English

Workers battle to drain the overflowed Smit Street off-ramp in Braamfontein caused by the storm in Joburg. Picture: Itumeleng English

Published Feb 1, 2017

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Johannesburg – A teenager who drowned in Tembisa is believed to be the victim of the latest flash floods that swept Gauteng, leaving people stranded, roads under water and some closed.

Police divers found the body of the 13-year-old girl on Tuesday morning in a flooded stream in the Tembisa section of Winnie Mandela Zone 11.

Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Services spokesperson William Ntladi said they had received a distress call on Monday afternoon about a teen who it was feared had drowned in a stream on her way home from the Mvelaphanda Primary School.

Ntladi said a search and rescue team was dispatched to the scene with the SAPS K9 unit. However, the search had to be called off on Monday evening.

“We resumed it yesterday at 8:30 in the morning, where we discovered the girl’s body an hour later. Her family were on the scene and identified her body shortly after the paramedics had pronounced her dead,” Ntladi said.

The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the downpour had resulted in flooding of several roads and low-lying bridges as well as a few bumper bashings.

Areas that were flooded on Monday included the double-decker section of the M1 highway, parts of Cosmo City, Bryanston, Braamfontein, Sunninghill, Observatory and Fourways.

The Smit Street off-ramp and bridge under the M1 North in Braamfontein remained flooded for some time and was closed to traffic.

Eight people were also injured on Tuesday after a fire engine overturned and collided with two other vehicles at Wilge and Christiaan De Wet roads in Constantia Kloof, west of Joburg.

ER24’s Russel Meiring said paramedics, along with various other services, arrived on the scene to find a large fire-fighting vehicle on its side in the middle of the road against a light motor vehicle.

“Another light motor vehicle was found partially crushed beneath the fire vehicle. Upon closer inspection, paramedics found several firefighters and members of the public walking around on the scene,” he said.

Four men also escaped serious injury on Monday afternoon after they were rescued from beneath a flooded bridge on Bryanston Drive in Joburg.

“ER24 paramedics, along with SAPS search and rescue, arrived on the scene to find four men trapped after the river had flooded. They donned their wetsuits while community services diverted most of the traffic,” he said.

Meiring explained that ER24 assisted the rescue teams, using rescue throw-ropes to retrieve the four men.

“After a few minutes, all four men were brought to the nearby banks and assessed by ER24. Fortunately, no one sustained any injuries,” he added.

In another incident in Kriel, Mpumalanga, one person was killed and three others sustained minor injuries when a tree fell on to a building during a heavy storm on Monday morning.

ER24’s Werner Vermaak said they arrived at the scene to find that a large tree had fallen through a prefab building.

“Three people were found outside the building with minor scrapes and bruises."

“They indicated that they were inside the building when the tree fell on top and through it."

“They were assessed and treated on the scene and later transported to the Mediclinic Highveld for further care,” he said.

Vermaak explained that a woman, believed to be in her early thirties, was also found inside the building with fatal injuries.

“Sadly, there was nothing that paramedics could do for her and she was declared dead by the local emergency services,” he said.

Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department spokesperson Kobedi Mokheseng reminded road users not to drive or walk through flooding waters on roads, which were strong and could wash people away, to keep a safe following distance, not to speed, drive with lights on and seatbelts fastened.

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The Star

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