Due to heavy rainfall over the past few days, the Lourens River in Somerset West had burst its banks in the early hours of Wednesday June 14.
This resulted in localised flooding as well as the flooding of the sub-station located in Victoria Street, Somerset West, causing major power outages for the area.
Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the Disaster Risk Management Centre (DRMC) for the City of Cape Town, elaborated on the after effects of the river burst.
“The Lourens River bursting its banks has affected businesses, roads and homes in the flood line of the river. Disaster Risk Management teams are busy with assessments to determine the extent of the damages and assistance needed from the public.
“The SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) and other NGOs have been activated to provide soft relief to affected communities. The City’s Roads and Infrastructure Management Services as well as Stormwater teams are busy unblocking drains,” Ms Powell said.
Beverley van Reenen, the City’s mayoral committee member for energy, expanded more on the power outage and its impact. “A large area electricity outage in the Helderberg region is impacting Gordon’s Bay, Strand and surrounds. This is due to a flooded Eskom sub-station and Eskom staff are attending to this.”
She added that Eskom is still pumping water at the flooded Lourens River sub-station with the help of Fire and Rescue teams. “At least 60% of customers in the Gordons Bay, Helderberg and Strand have now been restored by shifting load to sub-stations that take Eskom supply from other intake points,” Ms Van Reenen further said.
The City apologised for the inconvenience of the power supply.
Marcelle Adams from Eskom’s media desk, said late on Wednesday afternoon, the flooding of the sub-station is currently affecting the efforts of technical teams working around the clock to restore supply.
“The inclement weather has put the network at risk and has affected the electricity supply of customers in the following areas: Strand, Somerset West, Sir Lowry’s Pass, Macassar, Jamestown, Raithby and Firgrove,” Ms Adams said.
Eskom urged customers in the affected areas to be patient and said they will work towards restoring the power supply as soon as possible. In the meantime they issued a warning to those residing in affected areas: “Customers are encouraged to treat electricity appliances as live during this unplanned outage.”
Eskom and the City, could, however, not give a time frame for when exactly the power supply in the affected areas will be restored.
Ms Van Reenen said: “It is not possible at this stage to give an exact time for restoration of supply but City teams will continue to monitor the situation and will advise as soon as Eskom technicians have given an indication of when supply is expected to be restored.”
In addition to the power outage reports of evacuations in heavily affected areas were received.
Ms Powell said the residents of Kay’s Caravan Park in the Strand have been evacuated and accommodated by Help-n-Hand NGO, pupils and residents of St Paul’s Primary School in Faure have also been evacuated and accommodated at the St Paul’s Anglican Church. According to Ms Powell, the City’s Fire Service has assisted the Disaster Risk Management teams in evacuating the pupils.
“Infrastructure on the Old Faure Wine Farm in Macassar has sustained water damage,” she added…
Eskom advised customers to report any electrical faults to Alfred the chat bot at https://alfred.eskom.co.za/chatroom/
