Pretoria - Heavy rains on Thursday night and Friday morning in Johannesburg have caused damage to electricity infrastructure, leaving several areas in the city without power.
The storm left mini substations submerged, street poles were washed up and overhead power lines were blown down.
City Power said most of the damage was recorded in Lenasia, where residents were trapped in their homes.
“As City Power we have been in a disaster mode since the heavy thunder storms on Monday, and the rains last night have exacerbated the situation, making our recovery efforts difficult,” said Joburg City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
Mangena said trees which had fallen on their infrastructure since the rain started had been cleared since Tuesday.
“It is the integrity of the equipment that we are monitoring and attending to. These include the flooded chambers, submerged mini substations, washed up poles, cables faults.”
Floods have led to power outages in different parts of the city, leading to a backlog in fixing the issue.
“City Power is monitoring the flooding that is happening in most of the southern regions which may delay our response times and repairs,’’ Mangena added.
Speaking to eNCA, SA weather service forecaster Dipuo Tawana confirmed that more rain was still expected in Gauteng, and “with the ground already saturated, any little amount of rain might result in flooding”.
“We are still expecting more rain for the coming weekend, so we are warning people to be on high alert... We are already flooding in Gauteng, so that means emergency services should also be on high alert.”
Tawana said that, for the weekend, they had issued a level 5 warning for Gauteng which meant they were anticipating a significant amount of rain which would lead to floods, resulting in damage to low lying bridges, roads and infrastructure.
“The highest level is level 10. It covers a larger area whereby the municipality is unable to cope with their resources without external help.”
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