16 000 hit by floods

Torrential rain lashing the Western Cape has left at least one person dead in Citrusdal and thousands homeless on the Cape Flats and the City of Cape Town is trucking food and blankets to ease the misery.

Philippi, on the Cape Flats, was hit hardest with thousands of houses flooded in the Kosovo, Pola Park, Boys Town and Never Never areas.

On the West Coast, rain hit the Citrusdal district hard. A bridge across the Olifants River was washed away, taking with it a man who returning home from visiting his girlfriend on Saturday night.

Citrusdal police commissioner Solly Barends said the man was swept into bushes and drowned. His body had been recovered.

The N7 between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam was closed on Sunday after a dam broke and flooded the road about 10km outside Citrusdal. Police were still on the scene early today and had re-opened one lane.

To the east of Citrusdal residents of the Bo Rivier area were unable to reach the town this morning after a 10m chunk of tar road gave way - leaving a vast ditch across the road.

Mop-up operations are under way in the province, though the Cape Town Weather office has warned that the cold, wet and windy conditions are set to persist until Wednesday. Heavy rain - between 50mm and 60mm - is expected in parts of the Western Cape and more flooding is expected.

Light snow is possible over the western high ground of the Western Cape and Northern Cape.

By 9am on Monday, three community halls in the Cape Town were housing displaced people - in Lusaka, Crossroads and Lwandle in the Helderberg - indicating that most people were opting to weather the storm and remain in their sodden homes.

This morning traffic was delayed by flooding in the vicinity of Main and Belmont roads in Rondebosch and on Rhodes Drive, where there was a mudslide on Sunday, causing water to dam up. Flooding caused delays on Racecourse Road in Kenilworth and Table Bay Boulevard.

About 40 accidents were reported over the weekend and early this morning, according to city traffic spokesperson Merle Lourens. One person was killed and two seriously injured in one accident in Symphony Road, Philippi East.

The city's Disaster Risk Management Centre began mopping up on Sunday.

A statement from the city's disaster co-ordinating team verified that 3600 structures in 24 informal settlements were affected by flooding. Altogether about 16 000 people have been affected.

Wilfred Solomons-Johannes told the Cape Argus that 24 areas would receive attention after officials had assessed the damage. Hot meals, blankets and emergency shelter have been provided.

The Cape Flats had been most affected by flood damage, the city said. This had been because of the high water table and limited run-off capacity. "Formal areas have experienced only limited localised flooding due to blocked drains," said the statement.

This morning Langa residents waded through a stream of water running between Langa's Zone 25 and Joe Slovo on their way to work. Some made stone footpaths to cross the stream. Dressed in yellow rainsuits and boots, some waded through the water while one person braved the deep stream and drove through.

Resident Mxolisi Mboni said:

"Year in and year out the roads are like this. We have nowhere to go now because our shacks are flooded. This is what we go through all the time."

- Cape Argus