Man shares his horrific hailstorm experience

Gerhard Scheepers, posted on Facebook that him and his wife were driving home from Johannesburg. “When we left Alzu Petroport in the late afternoon, there was a spectacular storm in the distance. On the Lydenburg road, we could see the storm in front of us but never caught up to it and only got wet roads. “After Ohrigstad, the road was dry, but we could still see the constant lightning in the distance. Just after 21:00, as we went passed Appelblaar, we caught up to it, and then the hail started.”

He said they thought it wise not to push on and found shelter under the Blyde Petrol Station’s roof with another bakkie. “Little did we know that the roof would not provide shelter against what was about to happen,” he said. He explained that the noise was indescribable, with hail pelting the car, the wind howling, the building’s alarm going off, and for what felt like a very long time, they had zero visibility. “The car was rocking from side to side and when visibility improved, we saw a massive, rotating column of rain and debris in front of us.

Also read: Windstorm hits Hoedies hard

I shouted to my wife, it looks like a tornado!” He said they felt helpless and had no idea what to do and waited it out, hoping and praying they would be safe. “It went past, and everything went quiet as if nothing had happened. We sat in the car for a minute or so trying to understand what just happened, then continued home,” he said.

Along the way, road signs were blown away, debris and tree branches were lying in the road, and they saw a couple of uprooted trees. “Early Saturday morning we went to see what happened the night before. We were stunned to discover that the roof we parked under was completely ripped off the building and was lying behind the petrol station. We didn’t even realise that it happened while we were parked there,” he said.