By Neelam Rahim

The South African Weather Service reported: “A cold front has made landfall over the western parts of the Western Cape. Continuous rain and scattered-to-widespread rain showers are expected to persist into Wednesday. Flooding is expected for Tuesday over the south-western parts of the Western Cape.”

On Tuesday, the City of Cape Town said that all its emergency teams had been deployed to assist residents affected by heavy rains and flooding. Several areas across the metro are currently experiencing unplanned, weather-related outages, also tweeted by the City of Cape Town on Tuesday morning.

“These areas include Eastridge, Bridgetown, Rosebank, Mowbray, Philippi, Zeekoevlei, Mfuleni, Bantry Bay, Philippi West, Pinelands, Langa, Lansdowne, Bonteheuwel, Brooklyn and Parow,” it said, adding that its teams are currently attending to the blackouts.

Monday’s storm caused severe flooding in numerous informal settlements across Cape Town that distressed many residents as they struggled to save their belongings and housing structures.

Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell reported no major incidents, although there were sporadic reports of localised flooding of roadways and blocked drains.

“Blocked drains have been reported in informal settlements in Langa, Khayelitsha, Ottery, Lwandle, Strandfontein, Crossroads, Philippi and Gugulethu. Powell said that these matters are being attended to by the Roads and Stormwater Department, who are clearing and unblocking drains,” Powell said.

Charlotte also says the City had begun mopping-up operations across the city “amid flooding in informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Ottery, Langa, Strand, Philippi, Gugulethu, Delft, and Vrygrond,” News24 reported.

The Western Cape is experiencing a “series of cold fronts with an upper air trough, which have been dominating since Sunday evening,” senior forecaster at the Cape Town Weather Office, Elani Heyneke, told Daily Maverick.