A five-year-old East London boy was killed by the storm gripping SA when his home caved in on him yesterday morning.
Buffalo City Metro (BCM) ward councillor in Nxaruni, Mawethu Marata, said that the boy’s father returned home in the early hours, and opened their Mdantsane shack door letting in the gale which demolished the shack.
The boy was asleep with his mother and another sibling.
“The shack collapsed and when they realised that the boy was missing they went back and found the shack on top of him.”
Marata said four mud houses were also damaged in the area.
The storm will only slip off the East Coast tomorrow, said forecasters, but another front is on the way on Friday, said SA Weather Service (SAWS) national spokeswoman Hannelee Doubell. She said the cut-off low pressure system was sucking up moisture from the Indian Ocean and dumping it along the eastern seaboard, ending in a powerful low pressure cell over the Cape peninsular.
In East London flights were disrupted and rooftops ripped off, but unlike in Durban where there were multiple rescues of people trapped in their cars and even on islands surrounded by floods, no major accidents were reported on BCM roads.
Rain and gales smashed into BCM through Monday night and Kholiswa Ndzulwini, a mother of four children aged four to 11 living in NU14, Mdantsane, said they woke up to a loud bang at 2am.
Boy killed as home collapses as storm hammers province
Buffalo City Metro (BCM) ward councillor in Nxaruni, Mawethu Marata, said that the boy’s father returned home in the early hours, and opened their Mdantsane shack door letting in the gale which demolished the shack.
The boy was asleep with his mother and another sibling.
“The shack collapsed and when they realised that the boy was missing they went back and found the shack on top of him.”
Marata said four mud houses were also damaged in the area.
The storm will only slip off the East Coast tomorrow, said forecasters, but another front is on the way on Friday, said SA Weather Service (SAWS) national spokeswoman Hannelee Doubell. She said the cut-off low pressure system was sucking up moisture from the Indian Ocean and dumping it along the eastern seaboard, ending in a powerful low pressure cell over the Cape peninsular.
In East London flights were disrupted and rooftops ripped off, but unlike in Durban where there were multiple rescues of people trapped in their cars and even on islands surrounded by floods, no major accidents were reported on BCM roads.
Rain and gales smashed into BCM through Monday night and Kholiswa Ndzulwini, a mother of four children aged four to 11 living in NU14, Mdantsane, said they woke up to a loud bang at 2am.
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