Barely recovering from the April and June floods of 2022, residents in Springtown said they relived the fear and trauma of last year following Tuesday’s torrential downpour that caused widespread damage.
Devi Yoganathan, 81, (pictured) dashed for higher ground when the flood water reached her knees. “The water was so high, to our knees. That was the time the power went off. And it was so dark. I didn’t know where we were walking. I went to the top, to our neighbours and stayed there, because we were so frightened. It was scary.
“We haven’t settled yet, what happened last time to us. And so quick, we didn’t think that it would happen like that again. Soaking wet, we didn’t know where to go. We were so shocked. The water came inside. We are still cleaning up. It was so cold, we can’t stay inside,” said Yoganathan
Even though she was gripped with fear, the frail and brave grandmother, was adamant that she would rescue her neighbour. “My neighbour was all alone. I started calling for her to come out quickly, and she came with us. Right now, I am washing all my sarees that got wet last night,” she said
Another resident, Asheran Naidoo, said that within two hours the entire area along Foxglove Grounds was flooded. “Our garage was flooded, but luckily it was only a metre high. Last year during the April rains, our house was flooded as well, which was bad as I lost my vehicle. This time we managed to save my car, but still, it’s a lot of work to clean up,” said Naidoo.
Pepe Chutterpar said that he had to evacuate his family. “My 12-year-old daughter is extremely traumatised. She began re-living what happened last year. The water flooded into our home, but since last year’s flood, I’ve put up a strong wall which held the water off this time, yet the rain still came through our gates at around 9.30pm.
“The water was rising drastically and the items in the backyard started floating. We had to get the family ready as it was not safe for us to stay in the house and we decided to leave. We assessed the situation around 10pm and it looked like there was a river flowing around us. It took us a long time to recover from last year’s flooding, and we can only recover to a point. But we are thankful that we were able to get out of the house unharmed which was most important. When the rain slowed down, we came back to our house. We cleared all the water out, working untill about 2am. And now we are still cleaning and drying what we can,” said Chutterpar.
The eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda confirmed that one person died in Mayville. The identity of the person was not released at the time of going to print as the next of kin was still to be informed. Kaunda said disaster relief teams were dispatched since Tuesday to assess the situation. “We have been experiencing these disasters, so our teams were ready. Our teams have gone out today (Wednesday) to conduct an assessment. For now, we can say that we have received a report that we have only lost one life, which was not expected, but it happened because it was a disaster.
“We are also attending to the immediate needs of our community, especially to relocate them to community halls which was open last (Tuesday) night. We had to act immediately so that we can advise people as to what to do, and what becomes the reaction of government in working with them on the recovery part.”
Meanwhile, The South African Weather Service says it is busy conducting an in-depth analysis to determine whether a tornado did in fact hit parts of Durban on Tuesday afternoon.
Weather Forcaster Thandiwe Gumede reportedly said several factors must be considered when confirming a tornado. “Will have to confirm the wind circulation, the impact that resulted from it, synoptic systems, the exact time the public said the tornado occurred if our models or our tools – if those also show some parameters which contribute to the conditions of a tornado.”
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in collaboration with the eThekwini Municipality, has taken swift action in response to the unfortunate incidents caused by inclement weather across the province. A government delegation visited Inanda Township yesterday (Wednesday) to assess the damage caused by the heavy rain.
The Emergency Response Number for eThekwini: 031 361 0000.
