Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has called on people not to "take any chances" after the province was battered by severe weather. Photo: X/@WesternCapeDA
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has called on people not to “take any chances” after the province was battered by severe weather.
Winde is expected to provide a further update on Tuesday on the Western Cape Government’s disaster management efforts after devastating storms.
Heavy rain and gale force winds lashed several communities over the long weekend causing widespread flooding and destruction.
At a virtual media briefing on Sunday, Winde said Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) had been coordinating all efforts to manage the situation.
Winde has appealed to residents to remain calm and not to take any unnecessary risks.
“I would like to thank all Western Cape Government (WCG) departments, as well as other government departments, our first responders, law enforcement partners, and NGOs who have been working tirelessly to keep residents safe and mitigate, as far as possible, the impact of this disaster.
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Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said there was extensive flooding across the province.
“The next 12 hours will be very difficult. But our emergency teams have done an outstanding job in saving lives, which is always our priority in situations such as these. The hard work of our teams over a number of years in preparing for emergencies such as these has also been demonstrated in how we have responded.”
Acting Head of the Provincial Disaster Management Centre Schalk Carstens, said the centre and all its entities had been preparing days in advance for the cold front.
“The weather system is moving towards the Garden Route region, but it has been downgraded to level 6 for now.”
Carstens also said social relief would be needed for the storm victims.
“We are engaging with Social Development Department. We need them on board as quickly as possible because we are going to have a huge amount of people who will be affected by the storm [and] might need humanitarian aid.”
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