Flooding causes havoc
Although the flooding in our area was not nearly as bad as in surrounding municipalities adjacent to the Vaal River, some residents had to be saved from flood water this week.
According to the regional commander of fire and rescue services in the West Rand, Mr Bongani Momoza, an elderly couple had to be saved from their home at the smallholdings in Welverdiend at approximately 04:00 on Thursday. They were asleep when water from the Varkenspruit flooded their house.
On Saturday morning, the Loopspruit, which runs through Fochville and Kokosi, flooded after it rained heavily in the area for about 12 hours.
The bridges in Kokosi were engulfed in flood water, and even some yards in the lower part of Fochville were flooded.
“The last time there was flooding to this extent was in the 1970s,” a long-time resident of the town, Mr Louis Nel, told the Herald.
Around 09:00, the flood water started rising so fast that some motorists and even a government ambulance were caught off-guard.
“At Kokosi bridge, a black utility bakkie with one occupant and an ambulance with six occupants, five of them Gauteng Emergency Medical Services (EMS) employees, and one unknown female got trapped in the stream.
The five EMS employees got out themselves, and our team had to take the woman out as the ambulance was trapped. Our team then took the ambulance out of the stream.
“The driver of the black bakkie got out himself, but we couldn’t get his bakkie out.
“During the day, our team rescued another three people trying to cross the bridge but were overpowered by the stream.
“In total, we removed four people and recovered one ambulance in Kokosi,” says Momoza. He added that three Kokosi funerals scheduled for Saturday had to be postponed until Sunday due to the flooding.
The Gauteng EMS helped to collect the deceased and took them back to the mortuary as the undertaker couldn’t cross the streams at either of the Kokosi bridges. Luckily, no one was injured in the havoc.
However, the flood badly damaged the main bridge in Lembede Drive Kokosi.
The Merafong City Local Municipality only said the “flooding had caused soil erosion on the structural part of the bridge,” but did not provide further information about when it would be repaired.
Kokosi residents were also stranded without water and electricity from Saturday morning. The municipality said on Tuesday that the water supply had been restored after it was still off on Monday.
