Cape Town - Heavy rainfall continues to batter the City and parts of the Western Cape, resulting in a number of roads impacted by flooding and power outages reported across the province.
Yesterday, the City’s Disaster Risk Management head of public awareness and preparedness, Charlotte Powell, said the Disaster Operations Centre received no reports of major incidents associated with the cold front that made landfall over the weekend.
A vehicle was, however, swept away at Mikpunt in the Klipheuwel area.
The Energy Department was attending to weather-related power outages affecting 16 areas.
“While there were reports of roadways being blocked due to the downpours, the drainage systems could handle most of it.
“In instances where intervention was required, the Roads and Stormwater Department has cleared those blockages,” Powell said.
On Saturday, some roads in the Goodwood area were affected by flooding but recovered the following day.
Powell said the City was continuing with interventions, where feasible, in informal settlements still impacted by previous rainfall.
The City was experiencing a high number of service requests, with power outages reported in the areas of Nyanga, Philippi, Gugulethu, Parow, Ravensmead, Klipkop, Bonteheuwel, Claremont, Manenberg, Weltevreden Valley, Acacia Park, Rondebosch, Langa, Fish Hoek and Constantia.
The City informed residents that the weather could impact electricity services and restoration times due to the risk of flooding and damage to infrastructure.
The heavy rainfall also made it unsafe for teams to do electrical work.
Eskom reported that a number of households in Macassar, Gouda and Grabouw were without electricity due to overnight inclement weather.
Approximately 12 500 customers were without electricity in the following areas: Grabouw (Snake Park) and surrounding farms; Macassar, Sandvlei, Kramat; and Gouda.
Eskom Western Cape Spokesperson Lucy Ndou said: “Eskom wishes to inform its customers that extreme weather conditions have led to multiple faults across the Western Cape province, leaving a large part of this customer base without electricity supply. The technical teams are on site for fault investigation and to establish the estimated time for restoration.”
Ndou said the severe weather conditions impacted restoration time as many areas were inaccessible.
“Communities are encouraged to remain patient as this might lead to prolonged outages. Customers are warned to treat all electrical installations as live for the full duration of the interruption.”
The South African Weather Service (Saws) issued a weather advisory, cautioning of very cold, wet and windy weather conditions to affect the Western Cape and Northern Cape until tomorrow.
The windy conditions, with very cold and wet weather placed vulnerable livestock and pets at risk, which may result in the loss of vulnerable livestock and crops.
Snowfalls were likely over the Western Cape mountains and southern parts of Namakwa (Northern Cape).
Cape Argus