The Midlands HeraldPage 4 — 6th June 2008

“Normal business and community lifenearly came to a standstill on Tuesday whenUmgeni River broke its banks and startedflooding low-lying areas in the early hoursof the morning.

“Approximately 30 houses in the lowerparts of Howick bordering on the Umgeniwere flooded out and had to be evacuated.Most of these houses were in the white grouparea with 12 houses in KwaMevana havingto be evacuated.

“The occupants of the houses inKwaMevana and 20 families from HowickSouth have been given temporary shelter atMidlands Hospital, the total amount beingjust over 200 at time of going to press.

“The whole of Jupiter and Moonwalkroads had to be evacuated plus parts ofOakleigh Drive.

The 1987 floods — so

what did happen 20 years ago?

The front-page story of the editor, GarthSutherland, of the town’s Weekly Herald,

in its 30th September 1987 edition.

According to editions of the localnewspaper of the time, The Weekly Herald,widespread rains fell over the Midlandsarea from Saturday 26th to Wednesday30th September.

“So far no deaths or injuries have beenreported and the Borough’s Civil Defenceorganisation have done a marvellous pieceof work in keeping essential servicesoperating almost normally.

“Some of the cables stretching across theUmgeni which supply Howick withelectricity were broken at various times butthanks to the Borough staff’s sterling effortsmost residents were only without electricityfor a short period on Tuesday morning.

“All of the residents from these areas have

been given temporary shelter by friends,relatives or neighbours.

“Water pipes across the Umgeni were alsobroken and at the time of going to press itwas still necessary for residents to takeprecautions with drinking water — purifyingby boiling, etc.

“At this stage residents can be thankfulthat there has been no loss of life andalthough damage by floodwater has beenfairly extensive let us not relax our vigilanceas more rain has been forecast for theweekend.

“It was a weary Mr Strydom, the TownClerk, who told me on Tuesday night thathe had nothing but praise for the communityand colleagues for the marvellous wayeveryone has rallied around to handle thisdisaster.”

“Flood!”

Above: KwaMevana’s soccer field — here seen under water during the height ofUmgeni River — was severely eroded during the 1987 floods, in this picture fromThe Weekly Herald of September 30th 1987.

This 20-year-on look at the 1987 floods was being prepared by Herald editor Russell Barnes for publication on its anniversary last September, when he contracted aserious skin disease and suspended all future editions of the newspaper. He is now on his way to recovery, and for your interest still presents this look at those events.

On Monday 28 th traffic authoritiesreceived reports of flooding of dams andrivers in the Boston area.

At about 3 o’clock that afternoon theUmgeni River started to rise above thenormal dam overflow level, and Howick’sCivil Defence thereafter maintained constantcommunications with thesuperintendent at the dam wall.

The Borough of Howick, asit was then called, convened ameeting at 8:30 pm to carry outan appraisal of the situation,attended by town clerk GerardStrydom, its “chief of civildefence”, chief traffic officerIan Stuart, borough engineerand assistant head: civil KenHobson, assistant town clerk GGarside, and senior trafficofficer Johnny Oosthuizen.

They took measurements ofthe rise in the river and paid afinal visit to the Midmarsuperintendent at 10:30 am, after which MrStrydom informed the South African Policeand the mayor of the threatening situation.

At this time the rise in the river had alwaysbeen gradual but by 10:45 am it continuedat an alarming rate of over 30 cm per 30minutes.

Umgeni River bursts its banks

The flooding continued to worsen and theUmgeni burst its banks, threatening housesalong the riverbank and the lower industrialarea.

The river reached its highest peak in theearly hours of Tuesday afternoon andmaintained that level until Tuesday evening.Thereafter it began to subsidise.

Extent of flooding and

details of affected areas

Midmar Dam: At the peak of the floodMidmar Dam was in extent over 130% fullwith water calculated as flowing over the wallat a rate in excess of 1 000 kl per second.

Howick: The N3 bridge across the Umgeniwas closed to traffic, which was then divertedthrough the town. At the town’s bridge, theriver was flowing at 4-5 metres above itsnormal level whilst further upstream 3-4metre rises were measured.

Two houses in Moonwalk Road wereflooded, one to second-storey level and theother to ground-floor window level, andthree houses in Jupiter Road to window level.

In KwaMevana, the waters reached underwindow height in two houses, the tennis

court was washed away and the soccer fieldwas severely eroded.

In Howick West seven wattle-and-daubhouses were damaged, and in Howick Southa number of houses were made uninhabitableas a result of run-off storm water overflowinginto the buildings.The hiking trail and the natural vegetationthat had been newly created along the riverbelow the residential area were alsodestroyed.Howick industrial area

The lower industrial area in ExchangeLane, Power Lane and Campbell Road sawvarious buildings flooded, including theBorough’s electrical workshop, its stores andother workshops, Trentyre, the Lions RiverFarmer’s Exchange (now Afgri), Monty’sHydraulics and the Impendle Bus Company(now Mahindra Howick).

Despite the evacuation of the propertieslisted above, loss or serious damage was

suffered to heavy equipment, tools, officeequipment, and vehicles and stores.

One of the more dramatic elements of thedisaster was the washing downstream andover the Falls of one of Impendle BusCompany’s buses. According to stories it hasnever been found.Services: Three overhead mains cables werelost and related cables damaged, and variousother power lines suffered temporarydamage.

Power to the town was maintainedmiraculously through a singleline across the Umgeni bridge!

The sewer main betweenthe SPCA’s premises inCampbell Road and ImpendleBus Services (now Mahindra)was washed away. The sewagepump station adjacent the riverwas unable to cope with theflood and stormwater enteringthe system, and seweragebegan flowing directly into theriver.

Numerous septic tanks —mostly in Howick West —overflowed.

There were water losses.The 6-inch main pipe across the Umgeni wasswept away, which meant that Merrivale/Heights and the lower end of Howick Westand Greenfields were without water.

Umgeni Water’s pump station adjacent theriver was flooded and for a while Howickwas left without a supply.

Roads: Throughout the town roads sufferedvarying degrees of damage, compounded bythe fact that the Natal Provincial Departmenthad closed the N3 freeway and reroutedtraffic through Howick.

As the supports to the Umgeni bridge wereunder a raging torrent of water, it was notpossible to ascertain damage to the bridgeand officials were extremely concerned asto the stability of the structure at the heightof the flood.Telephones: In many parts of the town,telephones were disrupted, including thoseof the Civil Defence.The Weekly Herald, 4th November 1987

The 1987 floods hit the Midlands hard

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“David (Taffy) Walters and his wifeMichelle and their two children aged6 and 9 years have had to move in withtheir neighbours, the Christians,because of the devastating damage doneto their home, the ‘Old Mill’, by thefloods.”

“Caversham Mill

damaged by floods”

The Weekly Herald, Wednesday 21st

October 1987