- A police helicopter rescued Klipspruit residents when their homes were flooded after heavy rain hit parts of Johannesburg.
- All they had were the clothes they were wearing when the helicopter took them to safety.
- They were temporarily placed in a community room in Kliptown.
“We lost everything, but that’s okay, as long as I’m alive.”
These were the words of a Klipspruit resident policeman rescued when torrential rains caused flooding in parts of Johannesburg on Friday.
Flood victims clung to tree branches for several hours as floodwaters wreaked devastation in the area.
All they had was the clothes they were wearing when a police helicopter rescued them and took them to safety.
One resident, Zieyaad Badat, said they woke up early Friday to find that water had flooded their home.
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“My bed was floating on the water, and my brother was also floating away from me. As we left the house, the rain began to fall hard.
Badat said:
The water rose continuously. We came to a log, and even that was under water.
All she could think about was getting out alive, she told News24.
“I didn’t even think about what I lost. All I could think about was my life. They even tried to use a rope to rescue us, but that didn’t work. For six hours, we were tiptoeing on a log. If it wasn’t for the helicopter , we would have died. I am devastated. Some of us would have lost our lives.
“We need help because we don’t even have clothes.”
A barefoot Tevin Oilphant talks about how he cheated death.
Badat and seven other flood victims were temporarily housed in a community hall in Kliptown.
Tevin Oliphant, barefoot, told News24 that he and his loved ones had to flee their home around 02:00.
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“We were busy packing our belongings when floodwaters broke down our door. As we left the house, we saw the water coming towards us like a tsunami.
“We were very lucky to make it to the trees along the way, where we were rescued. We lost all our belongings, but we are thankful to be alive today.”
Oliphant said:
We look death in the eye.
Merechia Stewart, who used a foil blanket to cover herself after being rescued, told News24 that she managed to escape death.
“We almost died. I woke up to ankle-deep water. So I woke up everyone else in the house and told them we had to go.”
“I was the first one who almost gave up and was ready to die, but my boyfriend encouraged me to keep going and not give up,” Stewart said.
Merechia Stewart after being rescued from her flooded home in Klipspruit.
She said she had to drop the bags of belongings she tried to salvage because the water was too strong.
“I had to drop my belongings to save my life. We lost everything, but it’s okay, as long as I’m alive.”
Different parts of Gauteng were flooded after incessant rain began to fall on Thursday night.
Some vehicles were swept away and there were reports of some bridges being swept away.
