Phiwokuhle Mothemela
A traumatised Kariega family on Wednesday spoke of how they were able to escape raging floodwaters that engulfed a house in Westhill this weekend where a one-year-old child's birthday party, was dramatically interrupted.
The Tarentaal and Rademeyer families are still piecing together their lives and have no intention of returning to the house that has caused them so much trauma.
Nolene Rademeyer, the eldest daughter of Bernadette Tarentaal, recounted the drama on Saturday, while her mother was still too emotional to speak.
"On Saturday, we celebrated my daughter's first birthday and did not make much of the rain that was pouring. In the evening, my mother went outside to check for our ride, and noticed that the water had begun flooding our stoep," said Rademeyer.
Again, they did not think much of the rising water as her mother went back inside the house to fetch a towel to put at the door to stop the water, but little did they know that what followed would change their lives.
"The one moment we put the towel by the door to block water and the next, water came streaming in by our front door."
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Rademeyer says all they could do was grab what they could and run to her sister's place at the back of the house.
"We were stuck in the house for three to four hours before anyone could help us."
She says she held her one-year-old daughter on her hip while her mother held the back door open to allow the water to flow through the house.
"Within minutes, I was shoulder-deep in the water. We also had to flip the bed in my sisters' room onto its side and put the children on it, while one child hung onto a burglar bar in the room."
Tarentaal, became emotional as her daughter narrated their tragedy.
Their once proud house was still covered in mud on Wednesday, several days after the ordeal.
Local and national government ministers conducted a site visit to the communities to motivate for a national disaster declaration.
Thus far, eight people have died in Kariega including a three-year-old.
Algoa FM previously reported that some people have been relocated to the Moravian Church in Rosedale, Kariega.
The minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thembisile Nkadimeng said during a media briefing that a provincial state of disaster was declared on Tuesday which warranted the clean-up operation.
She also said the situation in Kariega and other towns in the province that experienced floods warranted a national state of disaster declaration which she hopes could be done by this coming Sunday.
Nkadimeng admitted that her office took too long to respond to the disaster, saying "If there were people who were trapped in this situation, they would have been dead now."
Eastern Cape premier, Oscar Mabuyane, in turn, said: "I have seen disasters before but I have never seen something like this, it's terrible."
He also addressed the security concerns of affected communities, saying police have been deployed to ensure their safety and their belongings.
In Kwanobuhle, community members rushed to fill empty water bottles at the water trucks making the rounds while the residents of Westhill informal settlement peppered officials who conducted site visits with questions on the way forward.
Meanwhile, the minister of transport Sindisiwe Chikunga visited the bridge that collapsed on Matanzima Road. The bridge which provides access to Kwanobuhle was among the first to be closed at the weekend.
The Deputy Minister of Human Settlements Pam Tshwete says they were on board and ready to allocate land to people eager to be relocated but were still waiting on the local municipality to identify the land.
