Local school badly damaged in recent storm
Although the rain was a welcome relief, it also caused havoc in certain places.
While a collective sigh of relief could be heard across the city, last Monday, when the heavens opened and rain poured down, for some residents the storm caused havoc.
Laerskool Elspark was severely hit by the storm, with the fierce wind and heavy rain causing about R500 000 worth of damage.
Principal Fred Gericke told the GCN that the three-storey school building caught the brunt of the storm.
The roof was blown off and many of the ceilings have collapsed.
A number of trees on the property also fell over.
“One of the large trees fell on our palisade fence and damaged it so now the school is not protected on that side,” he said.
“Our locker area was also badly damaged as well as the building.
“At the time there were children inside the building but luckily no one was injured.”
Another tree also fell on the teachers’ carports.
Gericke added that projectors and other items had to be removed from class rooms and several areas have had to be barricaded off.
The children are attending school as they are in the middle of exams, but most leave at 10am.
The aftercare children have been accommodated.
“Everything is fairly safe now and the contractors come in at 10.30am every day as we must get the school ready for the beginning of the year.
“We are coping although it has been a terrible time.
“I have also alerted the education department to the fact that some of the children may not do as well as they should in the exams as they have been disrupted,” Gericke said.
“Our parents have been extremely cooperative and the community has been wonderful helping to remove the trees and offering assistance.”
Gericke said that in all his years he had never seen wind like that.
Throughout the Elspark area a number of trees were knocked down in the storm damaging people’s walls and property.
Another resident, Linda Nortje, who lives in Cruywagen Park, told the GCN that there was a lot of storm damage in Brits Street.
“It appears that the damage was mainly to fences (a brick wall included), roof tiles, trees and even a large water fountain was blown over,” Nortje said.
“Our 21-year-old mulberry tree was snapped in a few places, our roof tiles went flying and the cover inside the roof blown open so that the water and hail entered through the ceilings.
“The fence between our house and our neighbours also broke.”
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