Flood damage scuppers businesses
Tens of thousands in damages were reported after the floods of December 2013.
Severe flooding in late December has left businesses at the Barry Hertzog shopping centre high and dry.
Reporting damages and losses across the board, shop owners and employees have blamed clogged storm water drains for exacerbating the flooding and resultant damage.
In the period leading up to the floods, sand and overgrowth reportedly blocked the drainage systems.
“The water overflowed because the system couldn’t cope,” said Lennie Badenhorst, manageress at Park Motors.
“It was unreal – my workers were knee-deep in water.”
Stating promises had not been kept, Mrs Badenhorst added the municipality now had to ensure the drains were cleaned in future, considering storm water drains had not been properly cleared in years.
“If there’s a little bit of rain, it will flood again. It’s not good for business and for the town.”
Owner of a local general store, Mohammed Alli claimed he discarded about R15 000 of stock damaged when his store flooded, mostly cigarettes which were ruined.
He managed to salvage only a few loose cigarettes from the water damaged packs.
“The water tripped the fridges; there was no power and lots of stock went bad.”
Mr Alli arrived at his shop on the day of the flooding to lend a hand to other businesses, but only realised about half an hour later the water was at shin height inside.
“All my stock was swimming,” he said with a grim smile.
He later resorted to using a hairdryer in an attempt to dry the fridges dry to function again.
Elsewhere at the centre, a second-hand shop suffered tens of thousands in damages, as a number of items, including appliances and wooden furniture, were destroyed.
An employee at the store added water lifted the linoleum tiles from the concrete floor.
“The drains were all clogged, and we had to pull stuff out of them during the flood.”
Bandile Masimula, who works at a bottle store, said a host of computers were rendered useless by flood waters, and some stock suffered damage due to the fridges tripping. The store had to shell out thousands for the repair of its refrigeration systems as a result.
“On the day of the flood, we arrived at about midnight. Rain-water and water rushing down the parking lot entrance came towards us in a surge.”
Following an email to the municipality, the Department of Technical Services visited Park Motors on Monday, and identified blocked ‘catch pits’ adjacent to the centre. Officials said these defects fell within the municipal storm water maintenance plan.
“We have scheduled the high pressure hosing of these catch pits on receipt of the relevant order. We anticipate action to be this week.”
Officials cautioned, however, the internal storm water reticulation system at the shopping centre was to be maintained by the developers and not the municipality.
