Cape Town – Motorists and residents have been urged to be vigilant following heavy rains that hit the Western Cape town of Parl and surrounding areas on Monday.
The severe rainfall and thunderstorms prompted emergency and disaster risk services to be on high alert after it left the town flooded.
Videos on social media showed cars driving in flooded streets and people walking in knee-deep waters.
The town experienced heavy rains, thunderstorms and flash floods, with a predicted rainfall of 70-80mm in 20 minutes, reported The Village Guy.
The report said businesses and residents were busy with clean-up operations.
According to Medicare, EMR staff and patients had to be evacuated after the roof of a hospital collapsed.
Drakenstein Municipality disaster management, roads and stormwater teams were attending to clean up in affected areas and rendering relief where required across the municipal area.
Numerous roads had to be closed temporarily, some roads surfaces suffered flood damage while several areas were also affected by power outages due to the storm.
“So far about 250 incidents relating to flood and storm damage have been reported to the Municipality,
“The Municipality’s Electro-Technical Services division are attending to these outages and restoring power as soon as they can,” the municipality said in a statement.
Paarl about yesterday ?️⛈️?️?️#PAARLFLOODING#PAARLstorm #PaarlFloods #Paarl pic.twitter.com/ROzInDAUdQ
— Audrin Van Schoor (@audas_vanschoor) December 13, 2022
The municipality was on standby to assist residents who might possibly be displaced by another storm predicted for tonight.
“People who would like to donate items to those residents whose homes have been flooded, are encouraged to deliver these to the Fire Station in Berg River Boulevard in Paarl,” read the statement.
Meanwhile, the South African Weather Service issued a warning for severe thunderstorms with possible heavy downpours, leading to localised flooding of low-lying bridges, settlement and roads, and damage infrastructure were expected in parts of the Western Cape.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
