Families relive traumatic experiences in the floods
Families in Ashley who reside along the Umbilo River said they are living in fear as the river is still filled with debris and the tunnels are blocked.
SOME Highway families were forced to relive the nightmare of last year’s floods.
Ashley resident Clive van der Merwe said that again, this year, they had to evacuate their home as the water filled up to 1.5m high in their house.
“It feels just like just the other day when we experienced the traumatic ordeal of the April floods which caused excessive damage to our home and filled our backyard with sewage. We have the Umbilo River running at the bottom of our property,” he said.
This year, Van der Merwe said their house was damaged from the back and from the front.
“The damages from the back were due to the river and in the front were caused by the drainage system. Last year, they erected gabions on just one side of the river and left the other side. The river is now packed with debris and trees, and they have blocked the M7 tunnels. This is a disaster waiting to happen – if it rains now, I am scared of what will happen.”
Van der Merwe added that he believes the drainage system is the cause of all these problems. “The river is even filled with tyres.”
Also read: Residents fed-up with sewage running along their properties
Recalling Tuesday night, the resident said he came back from work and it was raining heavily, and the water started filling up their entertainment room, their bedroom and the kitchen and other parts of the house.
“The sad part is that we had just finished revamping our kitchen and it is damaged again. We had to act quickly again, and luckily, we were able to remove the cats and made sure our children were safe.
“We were again forced to abandon the house, and we once again moved straight to my sister’s house in Gillitts for safety,” he said.
He added that this is just heartbreaking. “We come here during the day to clean up. When will it end? What will happen if we experience another storm?”
What will happen if the storm returns?
Another Ashley resident, Caroline Holtzhausen, said they have lived in the area for the past 34 years and never had flooding through their entire home from the road side.
“I have video footage as it was at its deepest on the road – showing that none of the stormwater drains were working – they all collapsed, and our home and our rental home at Number 3 Nelson were both ‘bath drain plugs’ with all the water rushing into the two homes.
“On the river side – again, we never had any flooding until April 2022 and then on June 27, it was a total disaster.”
According to Holtzhausen, when they built her parents a cottage 20 years ago, part of the municipal requirements was that they had to get a 50-year flood-plan report – it came back with the instruction that they had to build a minimum 1m-high wall on the river side to prevent any compromising of the cottage and the double garage.
Also read: Stapleton Road is now open as City continues to clear the roads
“In April 22, all walls and the ground were washed away – we lost maybe four metres of the properties at both 5 and 3 Nelson, and out of our own pocket, we had to purchase rock to backfill before we could rebuild the compulsory wall.
“We never approached the municipality as we thought it would be a lost cause, but then, talking to the owners of 47 Winston Churchill Road, we discovered that the municipality paid for Rubex construction to attend to the gabion installations.”
This past week, Holtzhausen said it all came down again, two-fold, though, as the water that was rushing from the road flooded both their homes. And the rear was washed away and eroded away even more.
“If there is a next time – my father’s garage could be destroyed next and even the cottage.
“The municipality needs to install gabions onto the sides of the river where it aims directly to the 3 Nelson Property and then drags along 5 Nelson’s property,” said Holtzhausen.
She added that having to experience a car passing their back garden in the river as well as search-and-rescue teams looking for people was a traumatic experience one would never want to experience again.
“The road’s stormwater system and sewer lines have to urgently be attended to or we will next lose our homes completely, and our lives will be lost,” said the concerned resident.
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