Durban – JOZINI was one of the hardest hit by the effects of tropical storm Eloise, as heavy rains battered northern KwaZulu-Natal from Sunday night.
Parts of the Jozini Local Municipality were left flooded.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Sipho Hlomuka said, since Sunday, heavy rains were reported in the uMkhanyakude district, and parts of King Cetshwayo and Zululand districts.
Cogta said disaster management teams had responded to cases relating to inclement weather conditions.
According to Cogta, in eMkhonjeni, in Jozini, a family had to be evacuated when their home was flooded.
Another incident was in Abaqulusi, at Esilwen,i where a house collapsed in the early hours of Monday morning, leaving two people injured. They were taken to hospital and later discharged.
Cogta said residents in Big Five-Hlabisa, Jozini, Mtubatuba and uMhlabuyalinga were urged to be vigilant and to tune into their community radio stations for the latest updates on the weather conditions.
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) had issued warnings for disruptive rain and damaging winds around northern KZN between Sunday and Monday.
SAWS weather forecaster Wisani Maluleke said a considerable amount of rain fell in the north eastern parts of KZN.
Maluleke said that, as of Monday morning, 205mm of rain was recorded in Charters Creek, 144mm in Mbazwana and 122mm in Makhathini.
He said other areas that received a considerable amount of rainfall were Mthunzini, Richards Bay and River View, recording between 58mm and 74.6mm.
Maluleke said they expected rainfall on Tuesday, but not a lot.
He said there was a possibility of sunshine on Tuesday in the province.
“For the next four to five days, we will be back to more normal weather of thunderstorms in the afternoon,” said Maluleke.
On Monday morning, SAWS said Eloise, which was now an overland depression, was situated along the Limpopo and Botswana border. Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KZN and eastern North West were cloudy, windy and rainy. Heavy or persistent rain would result in flooding in northern KZN, eastern Mpumalanga and southwest Limpopo.
Meanwhile, in a statement Eskom said there were no major disruptions to operations as heavy rains continued across Mpumalanga, Limpopo and parts of KZN.
“Power lines in some parts of the Mpumalanga, Limpopo and northern KZN provinces did experience localised outages as a result of trees and poles falling on power lines in these districts,” the statement read.
Daily News