Freak giant waves hit S.Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province

2007 » March » 21

By Nozipho Dlamini

Durban, South Africa, March 21 (NNN-BUANEWS) The eThekwini Metropolitann Municipality, in conjunction with several stakeholders, have set up a Disaster Management Joint Operations Committee (DM-Joc) after freak massive waves that caused damage along the beach in the early hours of Monday morning.

The establishment of the committee follows damage to infrastructure along the coastline and national warnings from the South African Weather Services that high seas with wave heights in excess of seven metres were expected along the southern KwaZulu-Natal province coastline.

The committee consists of Metro Police, South African Police Services, Emergency Services, Electricity, Water, Roads, Engineering and Parks and Recreation.

According to eThekwini Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo, the situation had prompted the municipality to closed off all entrances to local beaches until further notice. "The city's emergency services are on standby for further wave activity along the eThekwini coastline,” he said.

He said there was no need for panic as a plan was in place to anticipate further storm impact.

Due to extreme weather conditions, a culmination of the highest astronomical tide as a result of the alignment of the sun, moon and earth and a cyclone around the coast of Madagascar, Durban has been experiencing unusually high tides and damage has been experienced all along the coastline, with Umdloti being the worst hit.

On Monday, a huge tidal wave of up to six metres in height hit the Durban beachfront, causing immense infrastructural damage along the coast and Naidoo warned people to stop parking their vehicles and walking onto the beaches to witness the wave damage.

[link to www.indianmuslims.info]



KZN issues Easter holiday alert

March 21 2007 at 12:00PM

By Sharlene Packree and Rivonia Naidu

Easter holiday beach plans may have to be scrapped as KwaZulu-Natal beaches may not be ready for recreational use after massive waves battered the shoreline.

Parks and Recreation head Thembinkosi Ngcobo on Tuesday said while clean-up operations had begun, it was almost certain that the beaches would not be ready for visitors by Easter.

Ngcobo said it would be wise to discourage large crowds from visiting KwaZulu-Natal beaches this Easter so that proper restorations could take place.

He said the cleaning-up process was further complicated by the uncertainties of the weather, as authorities were not sure if the worst was over.

[link to www.int.iol.co.za]