The famous line from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion sprang to mind with the recent Spanish floods because the rain did not remain on the plain and caused mass destruction to coastal towns.
I have been following the recent hurricane disasters in the US and now the floods in Spain with great interest.
And let’s not forget about all the localised flooding in our neck of the woods.
I believe that though many members of the community have suffered the effects of flooding in their area, others are rejoicing in the fact that all our storage dams are overflowing, bar the Impofu, which has surpassed the 50% mark and is fast heading for 55%.
The last time the Impofu was above 50% was in November 2017 and it was last full in November 2015.
The drop was steady to a record low of 7% in January 2023.
Contrary to popular opinion, last year was a wetter year, with the total rainfall at this stage being 736.5mm (January to October) and this year we have had a mere 497.9mm over the same period.
Bear in mind that we had an extremely dry winter.
If we have average rainfall in November and December, we will still be well below normal for the year.
It must be noted that the good rainfall of 2023 was a platform to build on and led to the healthy state of our water supply from our major storage dams.
Alas, our metro continues to ignore this and we are still on punitive restrictions, as we were at the height of the drought.
It was interesting that the Spanish flooding was caused by the exact same type of system that causes flooding in our area, namely a cut-off-low in the upper atmosphere.
Not detracting from the fact that their flood was devastating, the town of Chiva, west of the city of Valencia, measured 20 inches of rain in eight hours.
In 1968, the Bay measured that in just over four hours.
One must bear in mind that there is a huge difference in infrastructure and hydrology between the Bay and Chiva.
In our metro, the amount of rain that constitutes a flood today is much less than the amount that caused flooding 20 years ago due to our collapsing infrastructure and lack of maintenance of the stormwater system.
The hurricane season in the US, the floods in Spain and the recent flooding in our metro had a lot of similarities and differences.
In each case, the government was castigated for not being proactive and reactive enough in all incidents.
However, the criticism in SA was not as vocal as in Spain, whose king, queen and president were pelted with mud from the flood waters when they visited the disaster areas.
The major gripe was that people had insufficient forewarning of the event.
The weather agency did put out the warnings, but local authorities delayed getting the information to the public and lacked in informing them what to do before, during and after the event.
In the Bay, opposition parties claimed that had the metro heeded warnings of the imminent flooding in Kariega and cleared stormwater drains, the destruction would have been less severe.
In the US, there were numerous gripes about lack of fuel and resources to evacuate the area.
To add insult to injury, disaster relief was slow in coming, with numerous shortages of relief being recorded in many areas.
Perhaps they were more focused on their election.
This highlights the importance of weather warnings and a dedicated and effective disaster management agency.
The recent media reports about tender fraud at the SA Weather Service must be viewed in a serious light, as it is these warnings, if heeded, that save lives.
Anything that inhibits the effectiveness of the officials that provide this service affects lives.
We all know what happened at other state entities such as Eskom and SAA.
Despite always being at the receiving end of criticism and jest, it is at times like this that we realise the importance of weather agencies.
Though always in the background, disaster management is just as vital in ensuring that loss of life, damage to property and the suffering of the poor are averted or kept to a minimum.
It is for this reason that there should be no fruitless expenditure in these agencies.
This week in history:
1922: Widespread flooding in Eastern Cape
Dam levels
Up from 77.27% to 81.03%
Weather safety tips:
Stay away from railway lines during a thunderstorm. A lightning strike further down the line could be fatal.
Now on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: WEATHER GURU
E-mail garthsampson59@gmail.com with feedback or requests
HeraldLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.