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Heavy rains, accompanied by strong winds, battered Idutywa and Willowvale, which fall under the Mbhashe Local Municipality, on January 10, leaving hundreds of people homeless after their homes were destroyed by the inclement weather.
This was revealed by Amathole District Municipality after having completed its final damage assessment report following the disaster.
The final report follows joint flood disaster site visits comprising the national, provincial, and local government, as well as national and district disaster management centres, Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency and provincial sector departments.
The visits were conducted on January 15 and 18.
One person, a 29-year-old female, died of internal injuries because of the disaster, after a house collapsed on her.
“With Mbhashe Local Municipality having declared a state of disaster, the aim of the visits was not only to assess the areas, but for various stakeholders to physically verify the scale of the damage to activate support to the affected households and wards, as well as kickstart the disaster incident classification process,” said Amathole District Municipality acting spokesperson, Sisa Msiwa.
Msiwa added that the damage caused by the heavy rains and strong winds was not only confined to Mbhashe Local Municipality, but Mnquma and Raymond Mhlaba local municipalities were affected as well.
She said that the Department of Social Development had provided psycho-social support to affected families, while Eskom repaired damaged powerlines and the Department of Human Settlements urgently delivered 14 temporary relief units to affected families in Mbhashe Local Municipality.
“The classification of the disaster is yet to be done by the national disaster management centre. Further engagements on the Mbhashe Local Municipality state of disaster classification are expected to continue at a multi-stakeholder joint operations committee meeting scheduled for January 29,” Msiwa concluded.
According to the final report, Mbhashe Local Municipality’s Ward 29 was the worst hit by the recent floods, which alone accounted for 70 families being left homeless.
