News
Strong winds kill two in East London
The Buffalo City Metropolitan has reported a second fatality as a result of strong winds that lashed parts of the Eastern Cape over the weekend. According to the Metro’s Spokesperson, Samkelo Ngwenya, the second incident occurred in Stoney Drift in Amalinda on Sunday when a tree fell onto a shack in which two young men were sleeping, killing one of them. On Sunday, a woman was declared dead at Ward 22 in Potsdam village after a wall together with the roof collapsed whilst she was asleep.
26 wards have been severely hit by the strong gale force winds and persistent rains which started in the early hours of Saturday morning. The most severe impact is related to houses destroyed or roofs blown away, electricity outages and blocked roads due to fallen trees.
Citywide electricity outages have resulted in households in various suburbs in East London being affected whilst in Mdantsane several areas from zone 1 to zone 17 are also experiencing power outages.
Communities are warned not to attempt to repair or be in contact with fallen wires that are hanging as this is dangerous but rather report these.
Preliminary reports thus far indicate that the most affected ward is ward 24 which includes Potsdam and Mdantsane, Thambo Park, Fort Jackson Industrial Msintsi, Nkomeni, Mbekweni and Kingston.
Areas affected are as: Gonubie, Beacon bay,Buffalo flats, Stirling, Amalinda ,Greenfields, Highgate Parkside, Dimbaza, Sweetwaters, Mdantsane, Zone 18 Post dam, Part of zone 17, Zone 16 Part of zone 15, Zone 12,Zone 9
Part zone 8 and 10.
BCM Multi stakeholder teams are busy conducting initial damage assessments; visiting affected households for needs assessments; and are developing a situational report.