Tree collapse on top of house
A man is upset after a tree that he has been complaining about fell on top of his house during the hailstorm.
A Daspoort man feared for almost 10 years that a tree in front of his yard would fall on top of his house, and on Monday evening during the hailstorm, his worst nightmare became true.
Flippie Jooste told Rekord that for the past 10 years he has been communicating with the Tshwane metro to remove the tree in front of his yard but nothing was done, now he has ended up with a tree on his roof.
“All we heard on Monday was a loud bang on top of the house. The ceiling in some parts of the house caved in,” Jooste said.
It has been years since Jooste has been sending emails to the metro but all they did according to him is cut a few branches off the tree.
“What can I say, the worst has happened. I have told them many times to do something, but they did not bother. I am lucky that I have home insurance and they will be able to assist,” Jooste said.
The ceiling in some parts of Jooste’s house caved in when the tree fell and some windows of his house broke as well.
The hailstorm on Monday left the west of Pretoria in ruins and left several places damaged. Community patrollers played a major role when some parts of the west were closed off due to flooding.
Police officer Flippie Welman, members of Area Patrol Unit, Pretoria West CPF and others worked hard to help vehicles that were stuck and removing items washed onto the road.
Patrollers and police said they appreciate how thankful the people they helped were. They said being in the rain on Monday helping the public made it worthwhile.
During the hailstorm on Monday, roofs caved in, boundary walls collapsed and a number of houses were flooded.
In Laudium, residents recalled anxious moments as their houses came under threat. One of them, Haroun Abramjee, said prompt intervention by the Laudium disaster unit saved the situation.
In Claudius, a fire that broke out because of the heavy storm was contained in time. Several roads in the west were blocked by hail and water as high as about 2m above surface.
In Pretoria West, the canal in Zeiler Street and the subway in Charlotte Maxeke Street were submerged to the extent it could not be used by people on their way home.
In Proclamation Hill, resident Katy de Jonge said a wall fell into her pool due to the storm.
“I could not go to work due to the damage that the storm caused to my house and yard. The house was full of water last night, and there is damage done to the swimming pool.”
Houses near Mountain View suffered the most damage.
Resident Nellie van de Venter said more than one house was flooded.
“The water became too much because of the rain. Damage was also done to our vegetable garden, the swimming pool and the house inside,” she said.
“We are happy there is rain, but we did not expect it to rain this hard with hail accompanying it,” Van de Venter said.
Some residents in Luttig Street sat on top of their beds in their rental accommodation to stay dry.
One of them, Daisy Mokgotho, told Rekord the water flowed into their rooms and damaged appliances and other belongings.
The metro did not provide feedback by the time of going to print.
Also read:
Long-awaited rain wreaks havoc in the west
Hael knou huise en mense in Moot
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