GEORGE NEWS - A cold front that made landfall on Saturday 27 June, hit the western and southern coasts of South Africa, bringing along gale force winds, icy weather and rough seas.
The South African Weather Service on Friday warned of wave heights of between six and nine meters between Lambert’s Bay and Plettenberg Bay, while gale force winds of between 80 and 85km/h were dominating.
George was not spared its wrath and the municipality had its hands full as extreme wind caused damage throughout the municipal area.
According to a press release sent out by the municipality earlier today, several electricity outages, many as a result of broken electricity lines or trees on lines, were reported across Wilderness and George throughout the weekend.
Repairs to the overhead electricity line near 7th Avenue in Wilderness necessitated the closure of the N2 between George and Wilderness for an hour on Sunday.
“The George Municipality Disaster Management Winter Season Readiness Plan for 2020 was activated with all the necessary role players assisting with the various types of incidents experienced,” said municipal manager, Trevor Botha.
A fallen tree in Arbour Road, Camphersdrift. Photo: Supplied
“The municipality responded to hundreds of incidents. In addition to the usual attendance to veld fires, water and sanitation complaints and traffic accidents, the municipality responded to damaged electricity lines, damage to informal housing and fallen trees.”
On Saturday morning a trip on a high voltage line at a major substation resulted in a short outage over a large part of George including the airport, Tamsui industrial, George South, Rosedale, Bos en Dal, Groeneweide Park, Herold’s Bay, Gwaiing and parts of Pacaltsdorp and Thembalethu.
A total of 167 electricity-related complaints were received over the weekend.
Municipal workers from the electro technical department hard at work to restore power to Heatherlands on Saturday. Power was off for most of the day and restored late afternoon. Photo: Ilse Schoonraad
Fire and Rescue Services attended to 18 trees that had fallen in neighbourhoods in George and Wilderness, a formal house fire, an informal house fire and four grass fires.
The Department of Human Settlements provided plastic sheeting to 37 houses in informal settlements in Thembalethu and Conville to assist with weather protection, as well as sheeting for a house where the roof had blown off in Thembalethu. The department will also be assisting a family that had lost their house to a fire in Thembalethu at the weekend and who had temporarily moved in with family.
Only a stump remained of this tree in Plantation Road, Heatherlands.
Photo: Ilse Schoonraad
Another tree in Plantation Road worse for wear after the storm.
Photo: Ilse Schoonraad
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