Disaster management personnel in Pretoria monitor a low-water bridge closed due to flooding. Picture: Etienne Creux Disaster management personnel in Pretoria monitor a low-water bridge closed due to flooding. Picture: Etienne Creux
The weather service has issued a “red alert” warning for eight of the country’s nine provinces as a massive weather system sweeps across the sub-continent, causing flooding in the Southern Cape and snowfalls in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia.
Gauteng had heavy rains on Wednesday which caused chaos with rush-hour traffic and some flooding in Joburg, while Namibians shivered in snowfalls in the southern part of the country – the first since 1996.
A “mini-tornado” ripped through Blairgowrie Primary School in Joburg on Wednesday, toppling a jacaranda tree on to a car carrying a father and two primary school children in Standard Drive at about 7.30am. No one was hurt in the incident.
In Parkwood, Joburg, lightning is believed to have struck a 33-year-old man in the shower, killing him, an ER24 spokeswoman said.
In George 150mm of rain fell between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and 91mm fell in Knysna.
Disaster managers said the extent of damage would be known only once the floodwaters had subsided.
The icy weather and flooding were caused by a massive cut-off low system over the sub-continent. Climate scientists say cut-off lows are becoming more intense because of global warming. There have been seven “one-in-100-year floods” in the Western Cape since 2003.
In the Free State the N1 was closed between Bloemfontein and Three Sisters because of flooding. In the Western Cape the R62 between Montagu and Ladismith and the R60 between Ashton and Swellendam were closed. – Pretoria News