According to South African Weather Services forecaster, Ntobeko Nkangane, there were no official storm warnings out yesterday, but a 60% chance of scattered thunderstorms were expected today and over the weekend, in the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
Nkangane said: “Every time there is a thunderstorm, there is a possibility of a tornado”.
Wednesday night’s storm saw various areas affected by electricity blackouts.
Msunduzi Municipality spokesman Skumbuzo Mpanza said the central and northern areas of the city were affected by the storm and were left with no electricity.
Mpanza said some of the affected areas were still off yesterday, but the electricity department was in the process of fixing all those faults and replacing electricity fuses where needed.
He said that by the end of yesterday, damaged electricity networks were to be fixed.
Mpanza said that numerous calls were received from concerned public members, but they were assured that the faults were in the process of being fixed.
Northern Park resident Aysha Joosab said that Wednesday night’s storm cut the electricity supply to her home from about 6 pm. She also said that she saw “a huge ball of fire from the electricity pole outside come inside the house”.
Joosab said that numerous calls were made to the municipality’s toll free number, but to no avail, as they still had no electricity yesterday.
Joosab said she could not confirm the extent of the damage caused. No one was injured during the incident.
SPCA spokeswoman Maureen Vida said they anticipated that many stray dogs would come in during the course of yesterday, because of trauma induced by the storm.
Vida said there were numerous “carcass collections from the road”.