Elderly KZN woman cut off from outside world after floods destroy roads

Flower Road at Umbilibili Farm, Umzinto – which leads to the home of local non-profit organisation, 4 Paws and a Tale Rescue – was the most affected road in Ward 12 by the recent floods.

Founder of the NPO, Nicky Koekemoer, said that she is now completely cut off from the outside world and her organisation cannot operate efficiently as there is now no road to drive in or off the farm premises as it washed away.

“I was able to walk a path on Saturday to where my friend Russell Symcox waited for me to take me to town to buy food,” explained Koekemoer.

“Then for my animals, Mark Holing delivered dog food last Thursday and all the bags had to be carried through.”

Koekemoer has not been able to do any of her regular stray feedings as there is simply no way to get out.

“I dread to think about what has happened to so many of these animals as they depend on us for food,” she said.

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Earlier this month, Koekemoer notified mid-South Coast locals about a rabies outbreak in the area and encouraged pet owners to vaccinate their animals.

The flood damaged road has now set back her rabies vaccination operation as she cannot get to animals to vaccinate them and this is one of her biggest worries.

To add to her concerns, Koekemoer’s husband is a cancer patient and she fears what would happen should he need to go to a doctor or hospital as he would not be able to walk to where the vehicles can get to.

Koekemoer mentioned that the local community has complained about the state of Flower Road as well as Prospect Road many times and hopes that someone will be able to come to their aid soon.

Ward 12 councillor, Shamila Sookhraj, recently did a site visit and saw the damage.

“Flower Road has been one of the roads that was a problem with poor drainage, and now with the heavy rains this was the worst hit road in Ward 12,” said Cllr Sookhraj.

“As for the Prospect gravel road, it has also been damaged badly, and this road has a little bridge which nearly got washed away, but thankfully the residents got together and secured it.”

She stated that these roads have been submitted to be considered a disaster and the National Disaster team will do an assessment.

“It is really sad that there are many old and sick people living on these roads, and these residents often don’t have water most of the time due to Ugu supply problems.”

“The temporary solution is to motivate Umdoni Municipality to do proper drainage systems and put in G5 grit and use the roller to harden it. The long term solution is to do a concrete v-drain and black top. I have already included the black topping and concrete v-drains in the Integrated Development Plan,” added Sookhraj.

This article was republished from South Coast Herald with permission