Cape Town -
More than 30 000 people were affected as temperatures plummeted and heavy rain hit Cape Town at the weekend.
Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons said 25 689 people had been helped on Saturday, and a further 6 400 people had been affected on Sunday.
On Saturday, 16 904 blankets, 25 326 meals and 945 baby packs were distributed in Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Philippi, Gugulethu, Strand and Somerset West.
Gridlocked traffic and eight car crashes in just two hours, as well as more than 100 flooded roads, marked the start of the weekend.
The Weekend Argus reported that there was flooding in parts of the Civic Centre, where mayor Patricia de Lille has her offices.
Chapman’s Peak Drive and the Table Mountain Cableway were closed for safety reasons before the storm hit on Saturday.
Cold conditions are forecast to continue into this week, with maximum temperatures reaching 15°C.
Cape Town traffic services spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan said there had been 24 motor vehicle accidents since Friday, with one fatality.
The driver of a Toyota died at 7.15pm on Friday evening and three others were seriously injured when the car collided with a bus between Robert Sobukwe Road and Symphony Way in Bellville.
On Saturday, the Ghost Squad arrested a woman for reckless and negligent driving after she drove two cars off the N2 at a speed of 240km/h.
Meanwhile, residents in Kraaifontein, Delft and Philippi East mopped up the remaining water in their homes on Sunday.
With broom in hand, Khanyswa Sithelo swept water into two buckets before carrying them outside her dwelling in Tsunami, Delft.
She and her two children, Sbabaklo, 5, and Siposethu, 3, have the flu and had been to Karl Bremer Hospital for treatment.
“We have been sick for a month now. Every time it rains it is cold and damp,” Sithelo said, coughing and holding her chest tightly.
On a pathway some distance away, a group of young children played in a puddle of water.
A little girl picked up a dead mouse dropped it, and bent over to pick up some other objects.
A small stream of water and rubbish trickled down the pathway.
Celiwe Gontshi, 35, had managed to get the water out of her house, but it was still damp and cold inside.
“Children are dying because of this cold.
“On Friday,I was in Tygerberg Hospital because I had chest pains,” Gontshi said.
“This cold is making everyone ill.”
She added that while the water had been mopped up, once it rained the flooding started all over again.
In Wallacedene in Kraaifontein, Rachmat Petersen, 32, and her five-year-old daughter, Moeshfieka, sat on their bed with one duvet covering to share.
“We have nowhere else to go. When it rains everything gets soaked,” Petersen explained.
Water dripped from the ceiling, a couch next to the bed was damp and the floor was muddy.
“It is extremely cold. My child is sick every day,” she said.
“We start a fire to keep warm in the evenings.”
Cape Argus