While most were celebrating the overflowing local dams, the farmers of the Gamtoos Valley and residents of the lower Gamtoos were counting the costs of the damage caused by the devastating floods.
There is a lot of opinion on the whole scenario, but one thing is for sure, all should be happy that the local supply dams were at a low level before the flood water arrived.
The Algoa System stood at a combined capacity of just 36% before the rains started on Tuesday, then rose to 106% by Thursday and 115% by Friday morning.
With an average of 400mm plus falling over the Langkloof, imagine the devastation had the Kouga Dam been near full capacity.
As per John Best’s calculations, the Impofu, Kouga and Churchill dams absorbed 175,324ML of the flood waters before reaching 100%.
Imagine if our dams were sitting at 85% or higher, the devastation would have been a lot worse.
On May 6, the Churchill Dam was at 37.59%, Kouga at 32.15% and Impofu at 36.31% and by May 7, they were overflowing.
Why then was the flooding so devastating in the Gamtoos area.
There are two rivers that feed the area, namely the mighty Kouga (which we all know) and the Groot River.
This is the one that flows south past the Kouga Dam wall and then into the Gamtoos.
The Groot River originates at a point where the Kariega River and the Sout River meet at the Beervlei Dam some 25km north of Willowmore, which itself has a catchment area of 1,440 square kilometres.
This is before it takes its journey past Steytlerville on its way to the Gamtoos.
With a capacity of 85.8-million cubic metres, the Beervlei Dam is almost as big as the Kouga Dam but was never designed to store water.
It is often referred to as the “dam designed to be empty”, as it is a flood control dam.
Most people are horrified when driving past it, because it is usually empty.
It is interesting to note that the Beervlei Dam was first constructed to alleviate flooding of the Gamtoos caused by the Groot River and was completed in 1957.
Only then was the construction on the Kouga Dam started, which was completed in 1969 to stem the waters of the mighty Kouga River and to serve as a storage dam for the agricultural sector.
The Beervlei Dam stood at 0% on April 28 and 8.4% by May 8 and by May 11 had reached 78%.
Therefore, about 70-million cubic metres of water must eventually slowly be syphoned into the Groot River and ultimately into the Gamtoos and then out to sea.
Fishermen will be glad that this means that the Gamtoos mouth will be open for quite some time.
Even with all these proactive measures, the water was just far too much to be tamed.
There is a book about the Kouga River where it is referred to as “Die Brullende Leeu” (roaring lion) which cannot be tamed when in flood.
Is this a rare phenomenon for the Gamtoos Valley to flood?
The Gamtoos has recorded flood events dating back to 1847, 1867, 1905, 1916, 1932, 1944, 1961, 1971, 1996 and now again in 2026, therefore making it susceptible to flooding.
Some farmers claim that this is the worst recorded flooding of the valley, as the water rose higher than it has ever been recorded.
Looking at the destruction compared to previous events; it seems very possible.
Residents of Kariega and the Swartkops Valley were lucky to get off a bit lighter this time around.
Though this event is almost a carbon copy of the 2006 event, the flooding in the Swartkops areas was not as bad as in 2006.
But Redhouse was badly flooded once again.
The major contributing factor during the 2006 flood was that the Groendal Dam was almost full due to a similar system passing through in May of that year, before the main event in August.
This time around, it was at 70% before the event, therefore absorbing a large percentage of the water before overflowing and raising the level of the Swartkops which almost topped the Kruis River Bridge.
Then, as predicted, dreaded water outages followed in large parts of the metro with many areas hit by power outages.
One saving grace was that even with the strong winds that followed earlier this week, the compromised main electrical pylons held in all parts of the city, thereby not creating a secondary disaster of note.
Unfortunately, numerous older diseased trees in the metro did not endure the wind, due to the soil being completely saturated and weakening their anchoring ability, leading to a few being toppled.
This caused many a localised power outage, especially in the rural parts of the metro.
Though the seasonal forecast is suggesting a dry winter for our region, with the dams overflowing, a follow up event as occurred in 2026 would be disastrous to say the least.
This time around, I am sure we will all root for that forecast being correct.
This week in history:
1950: Floods reported from Cradock (Nxuba) area and surrounds.
Dam Levels
102.99% up drastically from previous week at 25.82%
Impofu up drastically at 102%
Weather Safety Tips:
Avoid low water bridges at all costs during times of flooding or heavy rain.
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