Drought a distant memory as Cape Town braces for more rain

Mopping up continued in Cape Town on Thursday after several days of continuous rain, with more forecast to arrive on Thursday evening and at the weekend.

The city's transport department was providing sandbags to raise the floor level of dwellings in the worst affected areas, including informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Philippi, Mfuleni, Langa, Masiphumelele, Strand and Hout Bay.

City authorities were also helping to provide meals and blankets in priority areas. “Some formal residential areas too have been affected in Belmont Park in Kraaifontein, Goedmond in Durbanville and Sonstraal Heights in Brackenfell,” the city said in a statement on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the health and safety precautions that apply to prevent the spread of the virus, the city is unable to provide emergency sheltering in community facilities.”

Photographs of flooded roads circulated widely on social media, with some residents rejoicing in the expected huge inflows into the city's dams. 

Updated dam level figures were expected later on Thursday, but so far this week more than 120mm of rain was recorded at the weather station on the Dwarsberg Plateau, which feeds the Theewaterskloof Dam. Dam levels are already significantly higher than a year ago.

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