KwaZulu-Natal has been placed on high alert following a warning from the South African Weather Service of disruptive rain for Thursday and Friday that could lead to flooding in low-lying areas.
The alerts come as the city of eThekwini, in particular, continues to grapple with the aftermath of devastating floods in April last year, which left infrastructure badly damaged, as a result of between 200mm and 400mm of rain falling in a span of 24 hours. period.
The April downpours triggered flooding, landslides, washed away bridges, collapsed buildings and roads, and claimed more than 400 lives. More than 40,000 people were displaced.
This week the weather service forecast “more than 200mm” of rain for eThekwini alone, but it was revised to about 34mm on Thursday.
Level five and level nine alerts have been issued for parts of the province, meaning the risk of disruption and the likelihood of flooding is high.
Meteorologist Lehlohonolo Thobela said a level five warning denoted a “significant” impact of disruptive rain, while level nine was classified as “severe.”
“There are areas that have not recovered from the devastation of the April floods. There are still some roads that are under construction as a result of [that flooding] and now these heavy rains are coming that could destroy what they are trying to fix. So he [scale of the] the impact will not be the same, but similar to what happened during the April floods,” Thobela said.
The province’s cooperative government MEC, Sihle Zikalala, said in a statement that it had placed disaster management teams on high alert following the weather service’s warning.
Level nine weather warnings are effective for eThekwini, Ilembe, Umgungundlovu, King Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude. Level five warnings are effective for Uthukela, uMzinyathi, Zululand, Harry Gwala, Amajuba, Ugu and parts of Umgungundlovu.
The Eastern Cape is also on alert, with that province expecting 30mm of rain, Thobela said.
The KwaZulu-Natal Disaster Management Center has activated the Joint Operations Committee, which will meet daily with all the municipalities’ disaster management teams to take stock of the situation, Zikalala said.
He urged residents to restrict unnecessary travel, be vigilant and know the whereabouts of their children, discouraging them from swimming in rivers or large bodies of water.
According to the water and sanitation department, KwaZulu-Natal’s water storage is at 87.6%, while five dams run by Umgeni Water are at 104.4% capacity.
