Three people died and about 3,000 lost their homes after heavy rains and floods hit Nelson Mandela Bay on Monday and Tuesday.
Mayor Gary van Niekerk said the metro is investigating how the victims died.
“We offer our sincere condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones,” he said.
The 3,000 people made homeless by the floods are staying in 19 shelters across the city.
“As a short-term measure, the national Department of Human Settlements is expected to deploy three officials today to conduct the necessary assessments before exploring options to relocate the affected people to more decent and humane temporary emergency areas,” Van Niekerk said.
The mayor said the metro is looking for money to provide temporary homes until permanent housing can be found.
Many areas lost power on Tuesday because of the rain. The municipality is working to fix this.
“Ongoing assessments of damage to infrastructure continue, with the Greenbushes substation almost submerged,” Van Niekerk said. “Customers are currently being serviced via Chelsea/Greenbushes back feeding.”
The floods have badly affected businesses in the metro. The NMB Business Chamber says 62% of workers couldn’t get to work.
“Some taxi ranks in townships are not operating, affecting the commuting of residents,” the mayor said. “Informal trading operations have been affected, and there are incidents of damage to both commercial and small-scale farming areas of NMBM, with small-scale farmers hardest hit by the heavy rains and floods.”
Pictured above: A group of residents clean up rubble caused by floods between Mabandla and Matanzima roads in Kwanobuhle, Kariega.
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