An SMS alert is triggered in the Eastern Cape about four times a week, warning of bad storm conditions heading towards the province.
”We send them out regularly,” said South African Weather Service forecaster Peter Lumb. ”On average, three to four a week for individual storms. We zoom in on ones that we think will be the most severe and will cause damage.”
Egg-sized hail stones smashed windows and cars within minutes in Indwe on Tuesday in what weather and disaster management experts say is the season of storms.
The province’s disaster management services and its stakeholders have been on standby since the beginning of December, said Peter Hlazo, head of the Eastern Cape disaster-management centre.
”It is becoming a norm that every December and January we experience such events. That’s why we are in a state of readiness.”
Tuesday’s storm in Indwe started at 2pm, said station commissioner Captain George Weiderman.
Within minutes, the glass windows in 700 houses in Mavuya and surrounding townships were smashed by hail stones the size of eggs.
Windows in the entire town were hit hard. The 100-year-old Dutch Reformed Church lost 36 of its original smoked panes, the police station lost 79, the municipality about 20 and the town’s three schools lost about 150 together.
One house lost its roof and about 60 car owners reported hail damage to the police station for insurance purposes.
The senior disaster-management officer of the Chris Hani district municipality, Thobela Memani, said it was the third recent hail storm in the area, with Whittlesea and Lady Frere affected just before Christmas.
Forecaster Lumb, who is based at the Port Elizabeth airport, said the Eastern Cape’s summers, and especially the north-eastern interior’s higher ground, provided the right conditions to trigger thunderstorms.
”You don’t get them in the winter — you only get them in the summer.”
The reason? Tropical moist air moves down from the north, combines with the cooler south-westerly flow off the sea and sets off the storms.
The result is storms like the one in Indwe and one that dumped 51,2mm of rain on Matatiele on the same day.
Norah Ngandi of the Indwe Residential Front, based in Manyano township, said the ”terrible” storm had started as rain.
”After that, we heard ”gung! gung! gung!” on the roof — we couldn’t go outside. It was a big, big storm. I was so shocked.”
A few minutes later, the sun was shining again and people were coming to terms with the damage. The kitchen and bathroom windows were broken in Ngandi’s own home.
”Boxing Day was on our houses,” she said. ”We saw the boxing … not by people but on the houses.”
The area has had small hailstorms but not one as big as Tuesday’s in a number of years, she said.
”We had almost forgotten.” — Sapa