Towns along the Cape West Coast suffered major infrastructural damage with key roads and bridges washed away as torrential rain continued to ravage the province this morning.
The widespread flooding has sparked violent reactions among communities in Cape Town as hundreds of residents along the N2 blockaded the highway to protest at the lack of proper housing.
Police reported that around 500 residents of flooded shacks staged a protest on the Mew Way on-ramp of the N2, preventing traffic flow for about two hours last night as they burned tyres in the road and threw stones at motorists.
Police spokesperson Elliott Sinyangana said this morning: "Police responded quickly, managed to negotiate and get the people to disperse."
Officers are monitoring the situation along sections of the N2, but no violence had been reported by 9am.
The city's Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said: "The protests on the N2 are about housing issues and disaster management and other authorities are in the areas providing disaster relief."
The Cape Town Weather Office warned today that the cold, wet and windy weather conditions are set to continue to wreak havoc until Thursday morning.
The Weather Office has also warned of more flooding in certain areas, and rough sea conditions with waves of more than 5 metres between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay Wednesday.
Gale-force westerly winds are also expected between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay while snow may fall overnight in high-lying areas near Ceres.
And the flooding has also sparked calls for areas of the city to be declared a disaster area.
Simon Grindrod, mayoral committee member for Economic Development, Social Development and Tourism, told the Cape Argus this morning: "I've written to the Premier asking him to declare a city-wide disaster so we can access the emergency funding that we need.
The problem is that the NGOs that we would otherwise rely upon are over-stretched dealing with the recent xenophobia crisis.
"We need heavy pump machinery, emergency starter kits, the plastic sheeting, and we need sand. We also need to be feeding people on a daily basis.
"The city is providing what it can, but this is a much bigger problem than people are saying it is. I'm also concerned about DIY electrical cables which backyard dwellers are erecting. We need a huge effort to educate people to the dangers of exposed electrical cables in water."
Meanwhile, rockfalls were also reported on De Waal Drive where work was being done this morning to secure banks above the road, and eastwards from Gordon's Bay on Clarence Drive, where several motorist were lucky to escape unscathed. The Huguenot Tunnel was on Monday also temporarily closed due to rockfalls.
At 9am on Tuesday, 4,295 housing structures had been affected, 18,627 people had been displaced, and 12,409 food parcels had been distributed along with 13,249 blankets.
Meanwhile the capacity in the six dams which feed the City of Cape Town rose by almost 10 percent in the past week.
On Monday, Theewaterskloof was 84,7 percent full, Voelvlei 78,5 percent, Wemmershoek 74 percent, Steenbras Upper 83 percent and Steenbras Lower 66,4 percent.
Willie Enright, from the Department of Water Affairs in the Western Cape, said on Monday the sixth, the newly-built Berg River dam, near the river's source in Franschhoek, had filled to 77,7 percent. It was up 15 percent from 62 percent in a week.
This was despite water being released from the dam a fortnight ago. The dam boasts the largest sluices in South Africa, and Enright said these had been opened for the first time last week, at a rate of 200 cubic metres per second, to ensure that the Berg River remained ecologically healthy.
On the West Coast, the flooded Olifants River has caused widespread damage, and has filled the Clanwilliam Dam to capacity, up from 55 percent just a fortnight ago.
On Monday, 1000 cubic metres (tons) of water were flowing over the dam wall a second and this morning 11 of the 13 dam sluices were opened to allow the dam level to subside. - Cape Argus
The widespread flooding has sparked violent reactions among communities in Cape Town as hundreds of residents along the N2 blockaded the highway to protest at the lack of proper housing.
Police reported that around 500 residents of flooded shacks staged a protest on the Mew Way on-ramp of the N2, preventing traffic flow for about two hours last night as they burned tyres in the road and threw stones at motorists.
| ...the flooding has also sparked calls for areas of the city to be declared a disaster area |
Officers are monitoring the situation along sections of the N2, but no violence had been reported by 9am.
The city's Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said: "The protests on the N2 are about housing issues and disaster management and other authorities are in the areas providing disaster relief."
The Cape Town Weather Office warned today that the cold, wet and windy weather conditions are set to continue to wreak havoc until Thursday morning.
The Weather Office has also warned of more flooding in certain areas, and rough sea conditions with waves of more than 5 metres between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay Wednesday.
| 'The city is providing what it can, but this is a much bigger problem than people are saying it is' |
And the flooding has also sparked calls for areas of the city to be declared a disaster area.
Simon Grindrod, mayoral committee member for Economic Development, Social Development and Tourism, told the Cape Argus this morning: "I've written to the Premier asking him to declare a city-wide disaster so we can access the emergency funding that we need.
The problem is that the NGOs that we would otherwise rely upon are over-stretched dealing with the recent xenophobia crisis.
"We need heavy pump machinery, emergency starter kits, the plastic sheeting, and we need sand. We also need to be feeding people on a daily basis.
"The city is providing what it can, but this is a much bigger problem than people are saying it is. I'm also concerned about DIY electrical cables which backyard dwellers are erecting. We need a huge effort to educate people to the dangers of exposed electrical cables in water."
Meanwhile, rockfalls were also reported on De Waal Drive where work was being done this morning to secure banks above the road, and eastwards from Gordon's Bay on Clarence Drive, where several motorist were lucky to escape unscathed. The Huguenot Tunnel was on Monday also temporarily closed due to rockfalls.
At 9am on Tuesday, 4,295 housing structures had been affected, 18,627 people had been displaced, and 12,409 food parcels had been distributed along with 13,249 blankets.
Meanwhile the capacity in the six dams which feed the City of Cape Town rose by almost 10 percent in the past week.
On Monday, Theewaterskloof was 84,7 percent full, Voelvlei 78,5 percent, Wemmershoek 74 percent, Steenbras Upper 83 percent and Steenbras Lower 66,4 percent.
Willie Enright, from the Department of Water Affairs in the Western Cape, said on Monday the sixth, the newly-built Berg River dam, near the river's source in Franschhoek, had filled to 77,7 percent. It was up 15 percent from 62 percent in a week.
This was despite water being released from the dam a fortnight ago. The dam boasts the largest sluices in South Africa, and Enright said these had been opened for the first time last week, at a rate of 200 cubic metres per second, to ensure that the Berg River remained ecologically healthy.
On the West Coast, the flooded Olifants River has caused widespread damage, and has filled the Clanwilliam Dam to capacity, up from 55 percent just a fortnight ago.
On Monday, 1000 cubic metres (tons) of water were flowing over the dam wall a second and this morning 11 of the 13 dam sluices were opened to allow the dam level to subside. - Cape Argus
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