WATCH: Parts of Roodepoort battered by hail and strong wind
Debris still littering the streets two days later
The rain may have subsided but the debris still litters the streets.
An intense storm shook the suburbs of Roodepoort on Monday afternoon, December 5. Streets and homes flooded, hail pummelled motorists and any brittle trees or boundary walls came tumbling down. The following morning, streets were lined with rocks, leaves and branches as homeowners did their best to clean up the carnage and secure their damaged properties.
In Weltevreden Park, trees that had stood along the boundary of Panorama Primary School for several decades came crashing down. Albert Road was blocked for much of the evening as teams tried to clear the way for motorists. Tuesday was dedicated to sawing the massive stumps into transportable pieces that were taken away by tree-felling and removal teams but the old wire boundary fence may have seen its final days.
See video here: https://youtu.be/vdgXYbl09GQ?list=UUEhfdBuDrGBdtBnfZ_AVXCg
On Monday afternoon, a private rescue service responded to a nursery school that was heavily flooded. Private Disaster Management Services (PDMS) arrived at the nursery school near Christiaan de Wet Road to find much of the slopped driveway submerged by water. A blocked storm water drain was the cause of the temporary dam forcing a PDMS member to brave the water and unclog the blockage of litter and refuse.
At nearby Clearwater Mall sections of the upper level sustained mild damage with several ceiling boards buckling under the weight of the pressure.
“Centre Management can confirm that the severe storm that hit the West Rand resulted in some damage to the centre’s ceiling. We can confirm that there have been no injuries and that the centre is operational and trading,” said Clearwater Mall’s Marketing Manager, Jess Denner. The roof itself did not sustain any damage but a few sections of the in-centre ceiling were effected,” added Denner.
One of the primary arterials to Clearwater Mall, Wilgerood Road, sustained unprecedented flooding. In the widely shared video, the section around Ouklip Road was impassable with emergency responders helping unblock the drains.
Rebuilding continues on Wednesday, with one case in point being residential developments on Jim Fouché Road between Roads 1 and 3 that were still piling up the bricks from the rubble that was left of their boundary wall.
