16 January 2024
Lloyd Phillips
Many farmers and other residents of KwaZulu-Natal were severely affected by extreme weather over the past weekend.
The central and western parts of KwaZulu-Natal took a beating from gales, torrential rain, flooding and hailstones the size of golf balls. Farmers and rural residents, as well as urban dwellers, are assessing damage to roads, buildings, crops and other infrastructure and assets.
Videos and photos on social media show buildings and roads in Durban and surrounds either washed away or severely damaged. In the KZN Midlands, mainly in the adjoining Nottingham Road, Rosetta and Mooi River areas, numerous trees were blown into roads, powerlines, buildings and other infrastructure.
Ross Stratford, who farms in the Rosetta and Nottingham Road areas, says a massive storm ripped through the area at about 9pm on Sunday.
“The winds were so strong that the rain was falling almost at right angles. I’ve heard reports of numerous trees being blown over and of roofs and barn doors being blown off,” he says.
“Then there was the wind-driven hail that damaged some of the standing crops in the district. About 40 hectares of our silage maize was wiped out by the wind and hail. Fortunately, it was insured and we also have a spread of silage maize growing across different areas, so our fodder flow hasn’t been too badly impacted.”
Craig Clowes, who farms in the Underberg district, filmed large hailstones, some the size of golf balls and even bigger, falling on his homestead.
Amazingly, he says there was little damage, probably because the hail wasn’t accompanied by strong winds. “It could have been a lot worse. I’ve looked at my crops and their new leaves are still growing. There’s a good chance that the plants will recover. There was also lots of rain but the roads are still open.”
Rory Bryden who farms in the Kokstad and Mount Currie district, says he has recorded rain showers on 12 out of the first 15 days of January. Fortunately, each shower has never exceeded 20 mm.
“We’ve been exceptionally blessed. Unfortunately for some other farmers in our district, a twister came through over this past weekend and flattened a lot of their maize and uprooted trees. It was also accompanied by golf ball-sized hail,” says Bryden.
A statement by the KZN Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) says it received reports of “massive rains” in parts of the province over the weekend.
“Kwanalu is closely monitoring the situation and trusts that disaster management centres in each district across the province are geared to address the situation. We encourage those affected to report damages to the disaster management centre in your district,” it says.
Over the years, Transnet’s commercially important Port of Durban has sometimes been severely affected by extreme weather events. A response by Transnet National Ports Authority to African Farming’s enquiry says: “The Port of Durban takes note of the adverse weather conditions that destroyed some parts of KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday, January 13. The Port of Durban fortunately did not experience any damages to its infrastructure in the past weekend and port operations were not impacted.”
