Cape Town: After receiving the weather alert of heavy rainfall and wind storms, the emergency and enforcement services of the city of Cape Town remain busy. It is a test of the enforcement services, it is an intense cut-off, low pressure system that has been in place since Saturday, April 06, 2024.
The bad weather condition has impacted the city by localised flooding, wind damage to infrastructure as well as fires. On the enforcement side in the past week, staff has made more than 300 arrests.
As per the spokesperson of the Disaster Risk Management Centre – Charlotte Powell, the city has responded to inclement weather of the day on April 08, 2024.
The city’s DRM Centre continues coordinating responses and assessments of weather-related impacts. Based on the information of flowing through the Disaster Operations Centre, the situation in Cape Town has not changed yet.
However, the downpours are expected to continue throughout the day and the assessments on the ground are ongoing.
According to the reports, the city continues to provide assistance in areas where the strong winds damaged roofs or structures.
Till now, 23 reports have been received which are related to roof damage in several areas that include Delft, Mitchells Plain, Khayelistha, Blue Downs, Somerset West and commercial properties in Strand.
Another report was received, stating that the roofs were blown off in New Zone in Nomzamo, which affected 13 structures.
The electricity departments attended the power outages in several areas, enforcement agencies have attended the intersections that have affected power outages and minor flooding of roadways in Gordon’s Bay and Elsies River.
Several roadways were flooded across the city as the Roads & Stormwater Department was assisting with unblocking of drains and clearing the roadways.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Safety and Security – Alderman JP Smith has said that it has been an incredibly busy week for the Directorate and particularly the emergency services.
He stated that, “Over the Easter weekend, we had numerous fires and the coordination of relief efforts was barely completed when we had another big fire in Nyanaga and now the very wide-ranging weather impacts.”
Alderman Smith added, “I also want to appeal to the public to do their bit. Where possible, make sure that your property is secure, take extreme caution on the roads in particular and if you are by the means, please make a donation to many NGOs in the city who are doing incredible work on the humanitarian relief front.”