[The weather of the last 4 months has been the strangest I have ever seen. I’ve lived in Johannesburg for 20 years now, and this summer was the wettest I have ever seen. I haven’t watered my lawn since about November or December – which is really amazing, because normally, even during the summer, I have to put on my irrigation regularly.

The weather is too bizarre… and I note how often the meteorologists get it wrong – almost daily.

I think there is some strange weather all over the world in 2005, but we’ve had our fair share too. The Cape was in the midst of a DROUGHT, and then they were litterally drowned!! Jan]

A woman was struck by lightning, the N1 freeway was closed twice and roofs were ripped off 10 houses during the thunderstorm and high winds that lashed the Western Cape on Sunday.

Parts of Bellville were left without electricity as a hailstorm caused flooding.

The houses that lost their roofs are in Greenfields, a residential area near the University of the Western Cape. No one was reported injured.

Metro Rescue said it had received reports of flooding along Boyes Drive above St James and in Simon’s Town.

‘Trees were blown down and branches scattered across roads’
“Some people will have to do some serious mopping up,” said Metro’s Kenneth Duncan.

“We expect the areas closest to the mountain to be drenched.”

Disaster management had sent a team to the area, spokesperson Johan Minnie said on Sunday night.

He had also received reports of flooding and fallen trees in the southern suburbs and on the Cape Flats. No injuries were reported.

Provincial traffic authorities had to close parts of the N1 after fallen trees blocked the road near the Durban Road turn-off, seriously disrupting traffic on the Western Cape’s main freeway.

‘I have not heard of a person struck inside a house’
Minnie said the northern suburbs were worst-hit.

“Trees were blown down and branches scattered across roads. In some areas blocked stormwater drains led to flooding. Our teams are out there assessing the situation.”

In what is believed to have been a first in Cape Town, lightning struck a Brooklyn resident in her home on Sunday night.

Pamela Mtoto, 22, was sitting looking out of her kitchen window in awe on Sunday as the lightning crackled across the sky above her, when a huge force knocked her off her chair.

“It felt as if someone had hit me with a plank. I was numb and just lay there on the kitchen floor. My relatives had to come and help me up,” she said.

Mtoto was taken to Somerset Hospital in Green Point, where the duty doctor Zahed Abdool said: “I have examined her and it appears she has been hit by lightning. While there are no burn marks or fractures, she is in a lot of pain and we’re treating her for shock. Her vitals are normal.”

Mtoto was to be discharged on Sunday night.

Weather forecaster Johan Stander said although lightning could not directly hit someone inside a house, shock-waves outside could reach inside.

“I have not heard of a person struck inside a house, unless what happened was that a bolt struck a pole or a wire attached to the house and the waves hit the person inside. It is all about positive and negative power loading.”

On Sunday night Mtoto, who works for a city tourism company, said: “There was thunder outside and I was sitting on a high chair near the wall and window. Then something hit my left shoulder; the force threw me to the floor and I just could not move. My whole left side was hot and my body felt numb.”

In Kenridge near the Tygervalley Centre, resident Shelly Whaits said her house was flooded in Sunday’s downpour and that neighbours had telephoned her when they saw the water level rising to window height.

“We live in a corner house at the (lower) end of an incline in the road,” she said.

“The water level rose to about a metre (and) came through the window. Landscaping we had recently done was destroyed and the garden was ruined.”

Traffic authorities on Sunday night considered closing Bainskloof Pass, where a fallen tree was blocking one lane.

A one-hour hailstorm left the Beaufort West area drenched.

Provincial traffic police were kept busy all afternoon as strong winds ripped branches from trees and blocked roads, said control room officer Roaan Volschenk.

“On the N1 near Durban Road, the traffic flow was interrupted for about an hour,” he said.

“We had reports of branches strewn across roads and in Paarl a strong wind was lashing the area.

“In Greenfields, near the University of the Western Cape, 10 houses were left roofless.”

Willie van Rooy, provincial traffic centre manager in Beaufort West, said: “The whole area is soaked by this afternoon’s hailstorm and rain and some roads are partly flooded, but traffic flow on the N1 is normal.”

This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on April 11, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>