A week of heavy rain takes its toll on some Capetonians



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A tree fell in Parklands, Cape Town, during the storm.

A tree fell in Parklands, Cape Town, during the storm.

  • Cape Town’s dams may be reeling from years of drought, but it has come at a price for some residents.
  • Many of the city’s informal settlements are among the hardest hit by recent heavy rains.
  • Flood kits are expected to be distributed to help residents, but no emergency shelter had been activated as of Thursday.

Residents of many of Cape Town’s informal settlements were among the hardest hit during recent heavy rains in the region.

Several roads were also flooded.

Cape Town City Disaster Management Spokesperson Charlotte Powell said the informal settlements affected by the heavy rains were Phola Park, Gugulethu; Section DT Site C, Khayelitsha; Siyahlala Section D, Kampies informal settlement; and Siyanyanzela Philippi; Freedom Farm; Sophia Town; Kuils River; Tsunami TRA5; Informal settlement of Delft South and Craydon Farm in Macassar.

Residents of the city’s informal settlements often build corrugated iron houses.

Cuts

Roofs were blown up in the Eerste River and weather-related power outages were experienced in Philippi, Wynberg, Nyanga, Langa, Goodwood and Parow.

Powell said no emergency shelters had yet been activated, but the South African Social Security Agency was informed to help with humanitarian aid. The transportation department was also taking care of the roads that had been flooded.

Farther out in Parklands, near the Bloubergstrand area, trees that fell on Parklands Crescent and Humewood Drive had to be removed.

READ | Cape Town’s dams reach 90% for the first time in 2020

The ray of hope after the storms was that the dams supplying the city are at an average of 94% of their overall storage capacity, with the Berg and Steenbras river dams at 104.3% and 100.7 %, respectively.

This after years of drought.

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