Cape Town -
Clear weather is on the way for Cape Town and residents can breathe easily again after floods failed to materialise following a weather warning.
No infrastructure was affected by the rain of the past two days and the weather was expected to have cleared up considerably by this afternoon.
Although the rain did not have much of an impact, the City of Cape Town says it is finalising its readiness plan for the winter season.
“The city takes this programme very seriously and has over the past few years successfully implemented and improved on the plan,” said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of the city’s Disaster Risk Management.
He said measures would include maintenance work on the city’s stormwater infrastructure.
More than 32 000 people needed some of form of relief between the wet months of July and September last year. The city provided more than 35 000 meals, more than a thousand food parcels as well as blankets and baby packs.
Meanwhile, emergency repairs and the replacement of damaged infrastructure has started in Somerset West. Extreme weather conditions last November flooded the Lourens River, costing millions of rands in damage. The Somerset West Mediclinic had to be evacuated when the hospital was flooded during one night. Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for Transport for Cape Town, said the National Disaster Management Centre approved R5.76 million of the requested R7.7m in assistance for repairs.
Herron said the University of Stellenbosch was appointed to advise the city on short and medium solutions for the area to minimise the risk of future flooding. The city had also done its own surveys to assess the flood damage.
“The first contractor will be on site by the end of this month and a second contractor by the end of April. The removal of trees and islands as well as repair work to gabions, are prioritised and should be completed before the winter rain season.”
Weatherman Carlton Fielies of the Cape Town weather office said from Thursday, clear, warmer weather would be back.
Cape Argus