Africa-Press – South-Africa. The SA Weather Service (SAWS) issued a yellow level 2 warning for winds and waves in Saldanha Bay and Cape Agulhas on Friday.
Forecaster Dipuo Tuwana said, however, that the impact was expected to be minor and isolated.
On Saturday, the province would experience isolated to scattered rains, with widespread showers in the Cape Town Metropole, she said.
Tuwana said they had issued a level 7 warning for disruptive rainfall and flooding in the Cape Winelands and Theewaterskloof Municipality.
“There is a very low likelihood of severe impact to occur.”
She added that the service had issued a level 4 warning for the City of Cape Town and Langeberg Municipality.
“Here, there is a high likelihood of severe impact.”
The City’s disaster management said it had responded to affected areas by unblocking drains and removing debris, and would be on standby to respond to disruptive weather conditions that may still arise.
It issued safety tips for flood preparedness, mitigation and prevention:
Hill-Lewis said he had witnessed a major City effort to excavate the Keyser River near Tokai, where teams are removing silt and vegetation and diverting water within the catchment to help reduce the flow into the river.
The City’s Informal Settlements Management Department was also continuing with its assessment of areas affected by flooding.
Hill-Lewis said:
On Friday afternoon, Eskom said that several areas in the province had experienced power outages due to infrastructural damage caused by severe weather conditions.
It said the affected areas were:
The utility said it had deployed teams to affected areas.
“Several teams continue attending to faults to minimise the impact and duration of the interruption which Eskom wish to complete before the weather conditions worsen as per the South African Weather Service’s alert.”
The good news is that water levels at dams that supply Cape Town with drinking water have increased to 86.1%.
Data recorded at the dams since the beginning of June show that rainfall for this time of year is well in excess of long-term averages.
Dr Kevin Winter, a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, said the rainfall over the past 24 hours was not unprecedented.
“However, we have had a number of consecutive days like this, and the ground water table is rising, and water has nowhere to go. The SA Weather Service’s seasonal forecast predicted above-average rainfall for the Western Cape region. It looks like they have got it right. I think that we will be breaking some records for rainfall for June in certain parts of Western Cape,” he said.
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