The brunt of the 'storm surge' is expected to hit the coastal areas of the Garden Route by tonight.
All seven municipalities' emergency services have been put on alert to face flash floods.
Emergency contingency plans included the breaching of three estuaries.
To avoid a flooding of Wilderness the Touw River Estuary was breached by SANParks yesterday. Swartvlei as well as Great Brak River are being carefully monitored.
Otto said a sand berm (bank) at the estuary mouth was being kept in place at Great Brak to counter the expected spring high that was anticipated to bring 5m high waves. The sand bank could act as a barrier to high waves pushing back into the estuary and over the banks into the village. But the situation will be constantly evaluated, fortunately the Wolwedans Dam also acts as a flood barrier.
Power outages
The heavy rains experienced in the George area led to the George Municipality experiencing a number of power outages in Hansmoes-kraal where residents were without power until Tuesday after an 11kV insulator was damaged.
The heavy rains experienced in the George area led to the George Municipality experiencing a number of power outages in Hansmoes-kraal where residents were without power until Tuesday after an 11kV insulator was damaged.
"Electricity was restored to the New Dawn Park area, which was off due to an 11 000V cable fault - caused by suspected ingress of water due to heavy rainfall," said Chantel Edwards-Klose, George Municipality media liaison officer.
A small area near Herold's Bay was without electricity but power was restored by Tuesday afternoon. Staff have had to patrol the line on foot to locate the fault because it is inaccessible to vehicles. "A faulty insulator was located and is in the process of being repaired. By Wednesday power to Thembalethu and Wilderness Heights (outage from 16:00 to 23:00 on Tuesday) was restored. George Municipality thanks the public for their patience during these unexpected power outages," said Edwards-Klose.
A few families felt the harsher side of winter this week when their homes were flooded. The housing department compiled a list of homes needing preventative help. Gunplast was handed out to homes in Maraiskamp, New Dawn Park, and one home in Rosedale that was damaged.
From Sunday 31 May until Wednesday morning 3 June Wilderness Heights measured 87,2mm of rain. Witfontein got 71mm (George Peak 76mm). The rain was expected to taper off today (Thursday), but temperatures as low as 16°C were expected. On the bright side, forecasters in Cape Town predicted a partly sunny day on Saturday and a sunny day on Sunday with temperatures of 20°C and more.
Knysna got 88m of rain and Storms River village got a record high of 127mm of rainfall. Although two low water bridges in Meiringspoort were partly flooded, none of the district's major road routes were closed due to heavy rain, said Otto.
ARTICLE: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Klein-Karoo, Hessequa news'
