House seriously damaged when wind rips off roof
A sudden strong wind that was followed by heavy rain tore roofs from houses in Sterkspruit Estate in the early hours of Monday.
LYDENBURG – A sudden strong wind that was followed by heavy rain tore roofs from houses in Sterkspruit Estate in the early hours of Monday.
In one of them, owned by Mr Fanie Archer, the ceiling, mattresses, tables, chairs, dressing tables, carpets and many other belongings were soaked. According to Archer, the sound of the roof being ripped off was terrifying.
“It was like the entire house is collapsing, I could not understand what was happening, I just heard a loud noise and the first thing I did was to make sure that my wife was fine and then checked on my daughter who was sleeping in her room downstairs,” he said.
“I called out my daughter’s name and when she responded I knew she was fine, I then started investigating the cause of the loud bang.”
The roof was ripped off, blown away and landed on the garden and on the road. When they realised what had happened they tried to save their furniture. “We fetched buckets, towels and everything we could find to try and stop the water that was flowing into the house from almost everywhere, but we realised that it was not making any difference because while we were busy, a part of our ceiling collapsed.”
Ms Sonjá Archer said that she started praying. “When I saw the water everywhere I thought of the damage and I wanted the rain to stop. I kept saying the rain must stop, the rain must stop,” she said.
“It was like a dam in the house, we only had the living room to go to, so we all slept there until this morning when we got help. Things are better now.”
When Steelburger/Lydenburg News visited the scene a team of contractors was already busy with repairs.
