The joint operations centre (JOC) set up to respond to the Port Elizabeth area floods finally closed on Saturday, said disaster-management officials.
”We’ve closed our JOC now, we closed at 4.30pm for the first time … We believe there’s no further risk to life,” said Nelson Mandela Metro disaster-management chief Shane Brown.
The JOC was set up at midnight on Wednesday when the rains hit and has been open since then.
Brown said officials will still monitor the situation and mopping-up operations will continue.
The metro’s electricity department would be working on Saturday night and Sunday to restore electricity, which was still a ”fairly widespread problem”, said Brown.
Earlier, metro spokesperson Lourens Schoeman said 7 000 people had been evacuated to various halls.
After flying over the Port Elizabeth area on Saturday, Brown said rivers were still flowing ”extremely strongly” but that flood waters had subsided ”significantly”.
He said dams were all full. Port Elizabeth has water restrictions at the moment because of the low level of dams before the floods. Brown said that at the height of the flood, waters were up to 2m higher than usual and the Groendal dam was overflowing by 2,5m.
Damage assessment is still being done and final lists of the dead and missing being compiled.
Brown said the flood-response team involved hundreds of people, with the JOC staffed by about 30. ”In the beginning it was a rescue effort; it was a tremendous effort … Then it turned into a relief effort.”
Relief efforts had lots of help from business and the public. ”Some of us who have been awake almost since Wednesday are now going to have some very well-earned rest,” said Brown. — Sapa