Heavy Rains Destroy Gaborone Properties
Pini Bothoko | Monday December 10, 2018 14:16
But the heavens opened nevertheless, and a heavy downpour combined with a hailstone ensued.
For the next 10 minutes, it was total chaos and mayhem as week trees were uprooted.
Some of the trees fell on top of people’s houses and blocked the roads.
The strong winds also destroyed the roofing of a number of buildings around the city. The devastation caused by the storm was clear for anyone walking or driving through the city with trees blocking the roads and pieces of corrugated iron sheets lying around on the streets.
Public relation officer for National Disaster Management Team, Tebogo Modiakgotla said even though there were no casualties, the heavy rains caused a lot of damage around the city.
“No casualties were reported yet (by weekend), but the rain had strong winds that destroyed houses, properties, billboards and government buildings to mention but a few.
“Our teams are currently busy doing assessment together with social workers to establish how people could be assisted,” Modiakgotla said when reached for an interview on Sunday.
He said a number of houses around the city were affected though he did not have the exact numbers. “Luckily in most of the cases, the strong winds destroyed part of the roofing not the whole house and people were able to swiftly move their properties from the affected parts of the house to the unaffected rooms. There were reports in which trees fell on parked cars and destroyed them,” Modiakgotla said.
He said the roofing of a number of classroom blocks at Lesirane Primary School in Tsolamosese were blown away by the strong winds.
“The winds also destroyed part of roofing at teachers’ quarters, destroyed geysers and solar panels. A number of screen walls in different yards also collapsed due to the strong wings and luckily no one was injured,” he said.
Modiakgotla said currently officers from the Department of Parks and Recreation are busy removing trees that fell blocking most of the roads around the city.
“Our teams with the assistance of social welfare department officers are on the ground doing assessment and the affected individuals will be assisted accordingly. There are measures in place to come to their rescue,” he said, adding that he is waiting for an assessment report from Botswana Power Corporation, which was also affected by the heavy rains.
He said that it appears that most of the affected people will need to be assisted with temporary roofing. “Luckily the damage is not massive because the rain took a short period of time.
If the rain had lasted for quite some time it would have left behind great destruction in most of the affected areas and a lot of anguish for the residents,” he said.