Cape Town - Twenty-nine people were trapped on low-water bridges and at rest stops along the N12 at Meiringspoort when violent thunderstorms and flash floods wrought havoc in the area on Monday night.
Disaster Management crews, paramedics and police sprang into action and teams worked around the clock on Monday and on Tuesday morning to rescue stranded passengers and drivers who had been travelling along the nearby pass when the weather turned.
Among the vehicles caught in the coursing water was a Greyhound bus transporting 20 people, including nine children.
Four police officers, a driver and their passenger in a truck, a motorist in a bakkie, another truck driver transporting tea and an Italian man who was swept away in his VW Golf were also brought to safety.
The manager of Eden Disaster Management, Gerhard Otto, said the Greyhound bus was trapped in the middle of the pass near the village. He said it was in the parking area near the Meiringspoort waterfall. The other vehicles were trapped in high water and mud washing over low-water bridges along the road.
Otto said fire and rescue teams from the Eden District Municipality, the Oudtshoorn Municipality, Emergency Medical Services and police diving teams and police officers from De Rust and Klaarstroom rushed to the road on Monday at around 7.45pm. They discovered floods were wreaking havoc in the countryside. Otto said rescuers were particularly concerned about a man who was washed away in his VW Golf.
The Italian driver went missing Just before midnight. He was later rescued by a truck driver transporting tea on the Klaarstroom side of the pass.
Meanwhile, rescue teams managed to rescue nine children on board the stranded Greyhound bus. While the adults on board were initially hesitant to leave, they were eventually also moved to safety.
Local government MEC Anton Bredell praised rescuers for braving the high water levels and mud, putting their own lives at risk to ensure that those who were trapped were ultimately rescued.
“We need to commend these teams for making sure everyone was rescued. It is a miracle that no one was injured and no lives were lost. Everyone worked as a team and got the job done,” he added.
Bredell added that four police officers from the Klaarstroom station had jumped in to assist those in caught in the floods.
However, when the Cape Argus contacted the police station, the officers were unavailable for comment as they were off-duty.
On Tuesday morning the road was still closed, but residents in De Rust, which is situated near the pass, said parts of the road were being slowly reopened as teams cleared debris from the tarmac.
Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa had not responded to queries about the road closure at the time of going to print.
Meiringspoort has been flooded several times over the past 200 years.
According to tourism webpages in the Karoo area, there were significant floods in 1885, 1968 and 1996 which had had a devastating impact on both the landscape and local infrastructure.
Cape Argus