Heavy Floods Destroys Some Parts of Port Elizabeth

Picture courtesy: (Time Lice) Vehicle stuck at Brak River with six people trapped inside.

(The Post News)- In devastating turns of events, heavy rainfalls have caused significant damage to several parts of Port Elizabeth, leaving the communities dealing with the aftermath of flooding, missing individuals, death, and displacement of families.

The heavy rainfall started on Saturday, leading to untimely worst conditions in multiple areas of the city, including Nelson Mandela Bay and East London.

200mm of rainfall fell in Nelson Mandela Bay and East London Saturday night and through Sunday morning, causing a young girl to drown, four missing women, 70 other people to be rescued, and hundreds of residents to be displaced from their homes.

“Unfortunately, a baby girl and a man have died in overnight floods over the weekend in the Eastern Cape, and we are doing everything to continue rescue operations,“ expressed Sithembiso Soyaya, the spokesperson for Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

Various emergency services were deployed and have been working tirelessly to assist those who are affected, as communities were forced to evacuate their homes for safety due to rising water levels.

The South African Police Services, fire and rescue services, police K9 search and rescue, NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) stations 6 Gqebeha, Costal Water Rescue, Eastern Cape Governmental Health EMS, and other local security companies were deployed together with Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in search and rescue operations throughout the areas impacted by floods on Sunday, June 3.

Craig Lambinon, the NSRI spokesperson, stated that all their teams were activated during the heavy rainfall on Saturday night around 11 p.m.

The South African Weather Services had issued a yellow level 6 warning about potential winds, flooding, and snowfall over the weekend.

The Western Cape,Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Kwazulu Natal are the provinces that could be highly impacted by these upcoming extreme weather conditions.

In response to the untimely crisis, relief efforts have been arranged by both non-profit organisations and government agencies.

The Gift of the Givers stated that the high water levels sparked all the evacuation and rescue efforts in Kariega.

The South African Defence Force (SADF) also handed out a helping hand by deploying a helicopter with the assistance of the NSRI on the ground.

This rescue effort helped recover a man who was stuck on an island in the Brak River with his vehicle, which had six people trapped by the floods and swept under a bridge. It was reported that the six occupants in the car were trapped until midnight.

As clean-up operations start, the concern lies over the lives lost and the permanent damage to infrastructure and the economy.

The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but authorities believe the recovery will take weeks, if not months.

The recent events of flooding sends out a reminder of urgent improvement in urban infrastructure planning to cope with extreme weather conditions.