Early indications are that flood damage in Nelson Mandela Bay could total as much as R120-million, the municipality said on Friday.
It said in a statement that newly appointed municipal manager Graham Richards had told a special council meeting that there was extensive damage to roads, storm-water drainage and other municipal infrastructure.
The R120-million figure did not include damage to private property.
Richards said the final repair costs would be available only once all damages had been assessed.
Rural areas of the municipality had suffered most when it came to power outages, with trees being blown onto overhead lines, breaking poles and overhead line conductors.
About 40 households were still without electricity and every effort was being made to restore it as soon as possible.
About 7 000 people had had to be evacuated from their homes — mainly in informal settlements — and were given shelter at 25 school and community halls.
Rescue act
Last week, professional and volunteer rescue services worked together to rescue dozens of people across Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage after heavy rains and floods.
At least two people died, scores were evacuated and dozens rescued, said exhausted emergency workers.
Emergency services were swamped with calls for help. Teams of volunteers, working under the East Cape Emergency Services Coordinating Committee, helped out.
”Since 8pm last night [August 2] we’ve had 24 calls for the National Sea Rescue Institute [NSRI] alone. We rescued 76 people, collected one body and saved 47 lives. We’ve also assisted 23 cows, one bull, 13 goats, five dogs, one cat and we’ve dodged a lot of snakes,” said NSRI station commander Ian Gray.
The team of 40 also pulled 13 vehicles out of flood waters. — Sapa