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South Africa's Western Cape Province Declared Area of Disaster as Severe Weather Persists

19:03, 13 July 2024

Martha Yiling

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Since Monday, two cold cyclones have delivered cold, rain, and severe winds to almost the whole country. The country is located in the Southern Hemisphere, where the peak of winter falls in July. Local meteorologists don't exclude the possibility that El Niño, which previously brought warm air masses, has stopped since June, leading to storms.

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The stormy weather in South Africa's Western Cape continues unabated, with a level six alert issued and a state of disaster formally declared by the National Disaster Management Centre. The storm is expected to continue on Saturday and Sunday and would bring more rainfall, local media reported.

"This is really a huge humanitarian challenge that we are faced with, and there's also more bad weather on the way," provincial Local Government, Environmental Affairs, and Development Planning spokesperson Wouter Kriel told local media.

Violent storms have pounded wide portions of western South Africa since July 8, submerging houses and damaging infrastructure. A number of neighborhoods in the Western Cape and Cape Town were swamped.

In the city of Cape Town, 100,000 people have been affected by the storms, and 33,000 structures were damaged as heavy rains lashed the west part of South Africa, the Western Cape government said.

The provincial administration reported that work is being done to deal with power outages. However, 12,500 individuals in numerous areas are without state electricity.

The Western Cape Education Department announced that "close to 300 schools have reported damage, and over 120 schools require urgent attention."