Significant damage was reported across Nkomazi in Mpumalanga during a storm on Tuesday, and Grant Taylor, who has been a farmer in the region for nearly three decades, lost millions in crop and infrastructure damage in under an hour.

Lowvelder reports that Taylor, a farmer of litchis, mangoes and macadamias, has farmed in the Onderberg for 37 years and on his current farm for 27.

Over the years, he has watched many storms rage from the comfort of his verandah, safely away from his farm. But Tuesday was different.

“It was around 17:00 when I saw a storm brewing and moving in from Swaziland,” Taylor recalled.

“I thought it would miss us, as so many others have, but 15 minutes later it turned our way and hit hard. I felt something like a vacuum hit the house and blow the roof off.”

Taylor noticed that hail was pelting their windows, which should have been protected by an overhang.

But this time, the house was being battered by a storm unlike anything he had ever experienced on the farm.

“I’ve farmed here for 27 years and have been farming in the Onderberg for 37, we’ve never had a hailstorm here.”

Home left uninhabitable

He estimates that the roof of the house was blown about 40m from the house and at one point even slammed into his car.

But just as quickly as it arrived, the storm moved on. Taylor said that 40mm of rain fell in just 30 minutes.

What had been a five-bedroom house just half an hour earlier was now reduced to a single liveable room, leaving Taylor scrambling to salvage what remained.

“We’ve been forced out of the house and are living on the verandah while we repair it, which could take a few months.”

Millions in crop losses

Taylor estimates the damage to the house at a few hundred thousand rand, but that pales in comparison to the losses to his crops.

Fortunately, the macadamia crops did not suffer too much, as there was little yield at this time, but his mango and litchi crops fared far worse.

“We have about 10ha of litchis and have lost about R1m in these plantations. With our mangoes we estimate a loss of about 1 000 tonnes, which equates to roughly R10m in losses,” Taylor explained.

He believes it will take about five years to recover losses incurred in less than an hour.

They are also still without electricity and are working from the verandah as they continue to rebuild and recover.

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