Town in pieces after hail destruction

It was chaos.

In less than an hour Krugersdorp suffered one of the biggest hail storms it has ever seen. Hail as big as golf balls struck anything in its path and residents recorded more than 40 millilitres of rainfall.

The day following the storm, walking on the sidewalk proved to be a difficult task. Leaves were scattered all over the roads and sidewalks. Trees were left bare.

“But this will allow the plants to grow more beautifully,” one resident, Gert Nortje, said.

Gert, as he was sweeping the leaves from his driveway, told the News that in all his years, he has only seen a storm like this twice in Krugersdorp.

“Once in the 80s and now.”

Gert, like most of Krugersdorp’s home owners, was left with numerous broken or cracked windows and no power.

During the storm, many parts of town suffered a power outage. The News learned that some areas were also without water. It was later reported the Krugersdrop North substation had also suffered water damage and cut off pumps at certain water reservoirs, leaving some residents without water.

Later the following day, the power was back on. Mogale City Local Municipality workers needed to make sure it was safe to return power to the nearly flooded substation.

More residents posted their damage photos on the Krugersdorp Network Community’s Facebook page. Carport roofs were split in half and lying on top of the cars beneath it.

What was probably the most shocking was Key West Shopping Centre’s roof that caved in during the storm.

Another of the storm’s victims was a man whose car got stuck under the Chamdor Road bridge, infamous for its flooding during heavy rains. The driver was eventually rescued by passersby.

But as soon as the storm ended, it was time for damage control.

Krugersdorp Community Policing Forums, Public Safety officials and Emergency Services all rushed to help the community. But the lack of police officials were evident. It was later learned that at one of the police stations, police vehicles were caught under a collapsed carport roof as well.

Various home renovations and improvement companies also took to the opportunity to offer their services, flooding social media platforms with their advertisements.