About 1,000 homes in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, have been destroyed by strong winds and about 4,000 people have been displaced, authorities and aid agencies said, as the city braces for a week of destructive storms.
The South African Meteorological Service said on Monday that Cape Town and surrounding areas are expected to be hit by a series of cold fronts until at least Friday, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and flooding.
Cape Town’s disaster response team has been on alert since the first front lines arrived last Thursday.
The hardest hit areas are expected to be poor, informal settlements on the outskirts of South Africa’s second city. Thousands of people were displaced from Khayelitsha township, outside Cape Town, after strong winds destroyed homes and other structures. Local aid group Gift of the Givers said it had distributed 10,000 meals and 3,000 blankets to Khayelitsha’s displaced people over the weekend.
The City of Cape Town said other areas were flooded and more than 30 suburbs were without power due to the weather. It said it was monitoring dam levels to ensure they did not overflow and would consider a controlled release if more heavy rain was expected this week.
Cape Town is often hit by cold fronts that blow in from the Atlantic in winter, which hit the poor informal settlements particularly hard.
