After the flood: What's the damage?

GEORGE NEWS - The draft municipal flood damage assessments for George, Knysna, Mossel Bay and Oudtshoorn have to be completed by tomorrow, Friday 3 December.

According to chief communicator of the Garden Route District Municipality Herman Pieters, preliminary figures for George include damage to the value of R200-million for civil engineering infrastructure, R18-million for electrotechnical infrastructure and R27-million for housing damage.

George municipal spokesperson Chantel Edwards-Klose confirmed that the final estimated cost of damages for George Municipality will only be available tomorrow.

In Knysna the preliminary figures for housing damage is an estimated R10-million, which encompasses about 300 houses and retaining walls in Vlenters, Greenfields and Concordia. "No damages were reported for Hessequa and Kannaland Municipalities and Bitou Municipality also still needs to indicate if they would require any assistance," said Pieters.

"Our district roads infrastructure flood damages amounts to R15,9-million. For this the Western Cape Department of Transport would have to indicate if they could re-prioritise funding from their own budget, or if they would request a local disaster declaration to be able to solicit National Disaster Grant funding."

On full alert

Since the flood last Monday, 22 November, George Municipality has been working around the clock to address "thousands of issues", said Edwards-Klose. Meanwhile, the authorities still had to be on standby to address weather-related issues last weekend, including gale force winds, coastal impacts and more rain.

Chief Fire Officer and Disaster Manager Neels Barnard said all applicable sections were on standby to assist with the possible wide-ranging impacts of inclement weather.

"Our teams have been working non-stop to address emergency impacts across the area this past week and remain committed to deal with challenges to the best of our ability. A Joint Operations Command (JOC) is operating to coordinate municipal efforts in conjunction with emergency services from other agencies."

Pipes, streets and reservoirs

Last week Civil Engineering responded to a total of 81 storm water-related call-outs; nine sewerage-related call-outs and 22 burst water pipes - including the major burst that affected supply to reservoirs.

Pienaar Street bridge was severely damaged, but had been repaired by the end of last week. Madiba Drive (Old Saasveld Road) is the jurisdiction of Garden Route District Municipality and remains closed.

A total of 16 pavements and street edges were damaged.

Roads teams have been fixing potholes late into the night to make most urgent and main arterials passable. "The teams are working from one side of the city to the other and are addressing the most urgent first," said Edwards-Klose.

Two sewer lines sustained damage and pipes were replaced. The lines were also packed with gabion blocks for erosion protection. The dirt road to the Garden Route Dam, which had sustained severe erosion damage, was graded.

Phone calls

Electrotechnical services handled an estimated 3 210 phone calls in relation to power outages. The department handled and resolved 350 complaints including 34 call repairs at night.

Matters varied from damage to high and low voltage lines, substations, engineering and pump stations, to streetlights and vegetation clearing.

Emergency Centres of Mediclinic George and Geneva were flooded on 22 November.

Beaches and debris

Cleansing teams were supported by EPWP workers who cleaned all beaches in the municipal area of debris, filling more than 400 black bags. Parks and public open spaces were cleared of debris and washed-up litter. Debris was cleaned from the flooded area in Hope Street and a tree that posed potential danger was cut down.

Teams are walking the banks of the Kat and Molen rivers clearing natural debris and refuse / litter that had washed down from storm water systems. Gutters were cleared ahead and after the storm to ensure that storm water flows away as quickly as possible.

Refuse collection backlog has been almost resolved after services had to stop due to flooded streets and to protect staff from inherent dangers of flooded areas.

Food and supplies

The community development section had readied community halls for possible evacuees and made food and other supplies available as needed.

The team assisted social support services and charities to assess the needs of 980 households so that organisations could assist according to needs.

Gift of the Givers handed out 150 food packs in Thembalethu and Pacaltsdorp as part of this initiative.

A total of 60 soup kitchens in hardest hit areas were assisted with additional food and 300 meals were handed out to the homeless in the CBD. Last Friday, George Municipality had handed out 350 pieces of gunplast (plastic sheeting mostly used to waterproof roofs) to households in informal areas.

The perimeter wall of a house in Heatherlands could not withstand the unbelievably heavy rain. Photo: Ilse Schoonraad