Strong winds plunge parts of Cape Town into darkness

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The storm and strong winds lashing the Western Cape proved to be the undoing of this tree outside Mynt Cafe in Camps Bay. Image: Bevan Trevor
The storm and strong winds lashing the Western Cape proved to be the undoing of this tree outside Mynt Cafe in Camps Bay.
Image: Bevan Trevor

Parts of Cape Town are without electricity due to strong winds that have uprooted trees, causing them to become entangled in power lines.

Affected areas include: Parow/Glenlily, Constantia, Goodwood, Panorama, Kensington, Claremont, Lansdowne, Glenmore, Browns Farm, Gugulethu and Welgemoed.

“Area outages might take longer to restore, as a direct result of the high number of electricity faults across the metro. Covid-19 regulations also continue to have an impact on operations,” said City of Cape Town mayoral committee member Phindile Maxiti.

“City teams will continue to do everything in their power to attend to the outages in the shortest possible time.

“Due to the high call volumes, we ask customers to please submit requests via SMS and
e-mail, rather than telephonically via the call centre.”

Chantel Alexander, spokesperson for the city’s disaster risk management, said they had received reports of trees that had been uprooted in Sea Point, Ruyterwacht, Clifton, Sir Lowry’s Pass and Langa. Trees had also caused damage to property in Nyanga and Gugulethu.

“Trees have also fallen across roadways in Strand, Goodwood, Sir Lowry’s Pass Village, Milnerton and Camps Bay,” said Alexander.

“We have also received reports of roof sheeting blown off in areas of Bonteheuwel, Macassar and Manenberg.

“Residents are reminded to please call the public emergency communication centre on 021 480 7700 from a cellphone or 107 from a landline in case of any emergencies related to the prevailing weather conditions.”

The SA Weather Service said the country would experience cloudy weather with scattered thundershowers from Friday until Saturday.

“There are currently thunderstorms in the northern parts of the North West, which will move to the central and southern parts of Gauteng on Friday,” said forecaster Celeste Fourie.

There were thunderstorms in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and along the southern escarpment from Beaufort West to the Lesotho border, she said.

“On Saturday, there will be scattered thundershowers in the eastern Free State, North West, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga as well as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape,” Fourie said.

“Isolated showers are expected in the Western Cape and the western half of the Free State province.”

She said the cloudy conditions would clear up from Sunday in most parts of the country.

BY Nomahlubi Jordaan

 

 

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