Cape Town - A strong storm that lashed Cape Town overnight led to, among others, nearly 20 roads being affected after trees were uprooted, flooding in some areas and even caused prefabricated school structures to be blown over in Strand.
Cape Town was hit hard by gale-force winds and large ocean swells after a second cold front made landfall on Sunday night. On Monday morning, huge amounts of sea foam washed onto the coastline in Sea Point.
The City of Cape Town said its services were hard at work to deal with the impact and mitigate any further risks to communities.
With the first cold front of last week, some areas in the metropole received up to 100mm of rain. With more rain predicted, there is a high risk of flooding.
In a statement released by the city council, JP Smith, a member of the mayoral committee member for safety and security, said last week’s cold front had caused damage, but the latest storm posed additional challenges for the city’s disaster risk management centre (DRMC).
He said most calls received by the public emergency call centre and the city’s corporate call centre related to uprooted trees blocking roads, roofs blown off, power outages and flooding due to blocked drains.
A total of 107 reports were received of flooding in informal settlements, as well as reports of blocked drains and flooded roads, said Smith.
“‘We have moved away from lengthy rainy spells to shorter, more intense cold fronts which means that more rain falls in a shorter period of time, leading to increased risk of localised flooding, because the water cannot run off quickly enough.
“It is therefore imperative that residents do everything possible to mitigate the risk of flooding around their homes by ensuring that gutters are cleaned regularly and that any potential obstructions are removed," Smith said.
“In informal areas, we advise residents to dig trenches around their structures so that water can be diverted.”