Water, water everywhere and fears of floods

Strong flowing streams of water from the wetlands behind the dunes are flowing down the sides of the R330 to the entrance of St Francis Bay and the Links. This follows heavy rains in St Francis today that came down in torrents at times.

From there the water goes under the road through storm water drains and past Thatchwoods. A strong stream is flowing there but there was no flooding onto the golf course at 5.45 pm.

It is anticipated  that as  more and more water flows from the wetlands the St Francis Bay Golf course  could be flooded. At this golf course there were meetings held to prepare for possible flooding this afternoon.  St Francis Links and others offered assistance and TLBs. The Links dams are full but not overflowing this evening.

At the temporary Sand River  there is a strong flow of water flowing under the bridge .

The bridge though is holding well but on the one bank (see below) there are severe signs of erosion.

Meanwhile up at Sea Vista there are dams everywhere even in people’s homes. I received a call to bring newspapers and had to battle in my tiny car to get through the mini lakes on the roads. The people standing outside their flooded homes were calling on me to help them. I did not have enough newspapers (already delivered 5 huge bundles) and all I could do was to  promise to ask the after hours service at Kouga Municipality (042 291 0250) to help them. This department said there were officials at Sea Vista assisting those in trouble and trying to clear the roads.  Not enough light to take photos in that area this evening .

Update 5 July 2012. 7 am:

At 7 am. there were only tiny streams flowing slowly down the R330 to the entrance of town. There was less water everywhere  and much less flowing slowly under the bridge. The Sand River bridge is still intact – just the badly eroded one bank (see above).  Hope the Provincial authorities will fix soon.