Roads closed, trucks stranded, thousands of homes waterlogged or damaged
Dozens of stranded trucks lined the main road in Wolseley on Tuesday as heavy rainfall and wind continued to batter parts of the Western Cape.
Many roads and passes in the Cape Winelands were closed due to mudslides or flooding.
In Paarl, families were mopping up flooded homes.
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In Wolseley, a farming town in the Breede River Valley, several areas were flooded and many homes had been without electricity since Monday.
Truck driver Hassan Nahimana from Cape Town was stranded in Wolseley without network connection due to power outages since 2am. He was transporting groceries to Prince Alfred Hamlet but floods cut off all the entry points.
Nahimana said he tried to take a route via Ceres and narrowly missed a mudslide on the pass. "I was lucky," he said. "This storm is too much...I've been driving trucks for 20 years. It's never been like this."
Wolseley resident and farm worker Lucenda Pedro said she had not been able to go to work.
Their backyard was deep underwater, and the inside of the house was wet. A branch had broken off a tree outside their home had broken off and their fence was damaged.
Unable to cook or charge phones because of a power outage, the family was waiting out the storm. "We are watching to see if it gets better or not," said Pedro.
In the Cape Winelands, vineyards and farms were underwater. The swollen Klein-Bergriver close to Tulbagh had burst its banks.
Several healthcare facilities in the Cape Winelands have also been closed such as Ceres' Annie Brown clinic, Wolseley Clinic, Op Die Berg Clinic, Breerivier Clinic, and others.
The Witzenberg Municipality said in a statement that about five families had been evacuated from Wolseley, and one from Bainskloof. Several bridges in Ceres have flooded and parts of Prince Alfred Hamlet was inaccessible.
Major electrical faults were reported by Eskom on Monday leading to outages in Ceres, Breerivier, De Doorns, Rawsonville, Witzenberg, Tulbagh, and Wolseley.
The Breede Valley Municipality said in a statement that gale-force winds "significantly damaged electrical infrastructure in certain parts of the municipal area which, coupled with challenging weather conditions, have complicated the restoration operations".
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Many families were evacuated from the informal settlement in Rawsonville, Spokiesdorp, which was experiencing flooding. Severe weather across the country has claimed at least 10 lives.
According to the Cape Winelands District Municipality, several roads have closed due to mudslides and floods, such as a section of the N1 near Worcester, Bains Kloof Pass, and the Huguenot Tunnel.
