KwaZulu-Natal has been put on alert following warnings from the South African Weather Service of disruptive rain for Thursday and Friday that could cause flooding in low-lying areas.
The warning comes as the City of eThekwini, in particular, is still grappling with the aftermath of last April’s devastating floods, which left infrastructure badly damaged – the result of 200 millimeters of rain and 400 millimeters in 24 hours. time.
Heavy rains in April led to floods, landslides, burying bridges, collapsing buildings and roads and killing more than 400 people. Over 40,000 people were displaced.
This week, a forecast of “more than 200mm” of rain was made by the weather service for eThekwini alone, but this was revised down to around 34mm on Thursday.
Alert levels five and nine have been issued for parts of the province, meaning the risk of disruption and the possibility of flooding are high.
Weather forecaster Lehlohonolo Thobela said a level five warning indicated a “significant” impact from the disruptive rain, while a level nine was classified as “severe”.
“There are areas that have not yet recovered from the damage from the April floods. There are still some roads that are under construction as a result of [that flooding] and now this torrential rain came that could destroy what they were trying to repair. So on [scale of the] The impact will not be the same, but similar to what happened during the April floods,” said Thobela.
The MEC of the provincial cooperative government, Sihle Zikalala, said in a statement that he had put the disaster management team on high alert following the weather service’s warning.
A level nine weather warning is in effect for Durban, Ilembe, Umgungundlovu, King Cetshwayo, and Mkhanyakude. A level five warning is effective for Uthukela, Mzinyathi, Zululand, Harry Gwala, Amajuba, Ugu, and parts of Umgungundlovu.
The Eastern Cape is also on alert, with the province expecting 30mm of rain, Thobela said.
The KwaZulu-Natal Disaster Management Center has activated a Joint Operations Committee, which will meet daily with all disaster management teams from municipalities to take stock of the situation, Zikalala said.
He urged residents to limit unnecessary travel, be vigilant and know where their children are – discourage them from swimming in rivers or large bodies of water.
According to the department of water and sanitation, KwaZulu-Natal’s water storage is at 87.6%, while the five dams managed by Umgeni Water are at 104.4% capacity.