‘No one is coming to save us' – upcoming storms unsettle parts of drenched Western Cape

News24

2 days ago

While many Western Cape residents continue to sweep out puddles of water that flooded their homes during the devastating rain and gusty winds that wreaked havoc earlier this week, some say this is only the start of what is to come this winter.
Heavy rainfall led to flooding in parts of the province, including Cape Town, on Wednesday into Thursday morning; and while some were trying to sweep out the waters that flooded their shacks, others were desperately trying to rebuild their homes after strong winds blew away parts of the structures.
On Thursday morning, when residents in Mfuleni, Nomzamo in Strand, Hanover Park, Nyanga and Bonteheuwel got out of their beds, their feet were greeted by icy, cold and dirty water.
'I had no gumboots, so I had to tramp in the water to get to the side of the room where my shoes were. It wasn't a nice way to wake up this morning,' said Nyanga resident Cynthia Bloom.
She said even though she had buckets stationed inside parts of her two-bedroom shack, the downpour was so severe that two of the buckets overflowed.
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'It's not nice living like this in the winter. Everything is wet, people are miserable and there is not always help available to help clean the water out the house,' said Bloom.
In Mfuleni, Monde Zikalala said the roof of his shack blew off shortly after 21:00 on Wednesday, exposing him and his two sons to pouring rain.
'Where do you hide when that happens? When the rain comes in all we can do is either run over to a neighbour's place for shelter or seek shelter under the bed, which is even more risky because the water goes under the bed,' said Zikalala.
He said he spent the majority of the day sweeping out the water that had flowed into his home, while also trying to fix the roof, which he said would have been hard to do on his own.
'Luckily, my boys were home today and could help me with the roof,' said Zikalala.
Community Police Forum secretary Dumisani Qwebe said Nyanga was 'always one of the worst' in terms of the aftermath of storms.
'This is only the beginning of the winter period. We haven't even hit July and August yet and look at the damage the weather is already causing residents,' said Qwebe.
A Nyanga resident, Zinzi Mkijima, said when she woke up on Thursday her home was flooded.
She said:
No one gets used to this while living in the township. But this is our life, and no one is coming to save us.
'So, if it rains inside the house, we have to clean it ourselves. As sad and hard as it is, this is our reality,' said Mkijima.
Langa resident Mandy Ntshenge said they had no choice but to go about their business in their flooded homes.
In Bonteheuwel, chairperson of the area's development forum, Henriette Abrahams said her house had also been flooded.
'This is an annual occurrence whenever we have storms. Unfortunately, that's the issue with these stormwater drains and the infrastructure that is not being built to contain the amount of people living in the area,' said Abrahams.
She said when Bonteheuwel was built, its infrastructure was designed to accommodate
35 000 people 'and not the 85 000 that we have today'.
According to her, no upgrades have been made over the years.
'Neighbours clean our drains in our street to let the water out but then as soon as rain comes, we get continuous downpours when our drains get blocked. So, it's not only those drains, but also people have problems in all our streets that have sewerage pipes and sewage also pushing up,' Abrahams said.
'A few weeks down the line we will be sitting with the same problem again. A lot of residents didn't get much sleep because their bedding and floors are wet,' Abrahams said.
In Hanover Park, residents Johan and Beatrice Isaacs said their kitchen and bedrooms were soaked.
Chelsea Ogilvie/News24
'There was water all on the floors, the water ran underneath our cupboards, our kitchen cupboards, couches, mats, everything is just wet. This makes a person miserable,' the couple said.
Johan said all his tools in their garage were drenched.
'My work tools are probably so damaged right now and won't work because the plugs got wet. So, this weather is already costing me so much money if I think of all the repair work I'm going to need to do,' he said.
Meanwhile, in Middelpos, Saldanha, in the West Coast, humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers was assisting residents whose shacks were not only flooded but also blown away.
Resident Simba Chogi said parts of his shack were blown away while 'dirty muddy water' flowed outside his front door.
Andrè Truter/Mayor of Saldanha Bay
'Eish, this is bad. I don't even want to think what will happen when the big winter days come. We can't relocate because some of us have jobs here and are growing vegetables in the area,' said Chogi.
He said residents were growing cabbages, carrots, potatoes, spinach and lemons, but they were fearful that the rains may have damaged the piece of land where the crops were growing.
'We still need to go check what the area looks like where our food is growing. It's not far from Middelpos, but right now many of us want to fix our homes and get rid of this water,' said Chogi.
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Another resident, domestic worker Lulama Ranelo, said she was not able to go to her job on Thursday because of the state of her home.
'When you live inside a shack it's already cold and unpleasant. But then winter comes and it's even worse, and I fear this is only the beginning because more rain is coming. My food stuff is already wet, my small gas stove is probably broken already because of the water that filled the house,' said Ranelo.
Community activist Zulpha Cupido said residents who had means had already started donating ingredients to make soup for the residents of Middelpos.
Andrè Truter/Mayor of Saldnaha Bay
'It's the least we can do to help our community. No one wants to have to worry about sweeping water and dirt out of the house and still have to worry about food. So, we want to help where we can,' said Cupido.
Meanwhile Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said local disaster management teams across the province were currently engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, distribution of sandbags, clearing of blocked drainage systems and ongoing impact and damage assessments.
'High-risk areas continue to be low-lying, flood-prone informal settlements and communities near rivers, streams and stormwater channels,' Bredell said.
The South African Weather Service confirmed that a Level 4 warning for damaging waves, as well as Level 2 warnings for disruptive rainfall and strong winds (both coastal and inland), remain in effect across parts of the Western Cape.
The weather system has now shifted to the south coast, with strong winds forecast along the Overberg and Garden Route coastlines.
Provincial and local disaster management teams remain on high alert, monitoring dam levels and weather impacts in close coordination with municipalities and emergency services.