A line of storm cells blasting thunder and lightning, and dumping hail and squalls of rain, drifted down from Alice towards Mthatha yesterday.
Skies darkened and the weather office and insurance companies sent out warnings of severe storms, urging residents to protect their assets.
It took 90 minutes for the storms to travel from Alice to East London, said the Port Elizabeth-based SA Weather Office spokesman Garth Sampson.
Insurance corporations Discovery and Sanlam also sent out SMS notices warning car owners of imminent hail.
Three waves of cloudbursts swept over the region, the last drenching East London at 2pm.
Amid the torrents from above, King William’s Town and Bhisho residents were informed at 2pm that their water supply would be cut off.
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said a pipe had burst near the Bhisho water towers.
“This will affect the whole of Bhisho and King William’s Town areas,” said Cindi.
A maintenance team was on site doing the repairs, which were likely to take “six to 12 hours to complete” because of the large size of the water main, he said.
Sampson said their radar had been showing the line of severe thunderstorms, with a “100%” likelihood of hail near East London “then the radar went off shortly thereafter, possibly a power failure with lightning . . . We are tracking with the Mthatha radar, but it is on edge so readings are not that accurate. However, we see more cells moving in over the area and we have warnings out until 4pm .”
SAWS issued a severe thunderstorm warning yesterday afternoon for the Amahlathi, Ngqushwa, Nkonkobe, and Lukanji municipalities and to BCM.