Chaos on Durban roads as heavy downpours lash city

Heavy downpours in greater Durban on Sunday night into Monday morning have resulted in several major roads becoming flooded overnight.

The  provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department appealed to residents to use verified platforms for weather-related updates, like the South African Weather Service.

“The circulation of old videos and images causes unnecessary panic,” it said.

Heavy rain is expected to continue over many parts of KwaZulu-Natal into this week.

"We are urging our communities, especially those that are near rivers or are in low areas, to carefully guard their situation and seek shelter on higher ground. We also appeal to motorists and pedestrians not to cross low-lying bridges or flooded walkways.”

The department said the province was experiencing seasonal summer rain.

“We are in constant contact with disaster management teams in municipalities, and so far no major incident has been reported." 

ALS Paramedics spokesperson Garrith Jamieson said the rain has resulted in “multiple roads becoming waterlogged and quite dangerous to travel on”.

“Pools of water have started to form on the M7 near the Bellville off-ramp, which can be dangerous if a vehicle is to hit it.

“We’ve got waterlogging near the old airport on the N2, as well as in the Isipingo area, where water has accumulated.”

Jamieson said the M19 freeway was also waterlogged which made for dangerous driving conditions.

“We attended to multiple collisions on the M19 this morning.

“On the N3 near Hammarsdale a truck has overturned and that is causing a lot of delays.

“There are multiple collisions on Queen Nandi Drive. Water puddles have also started to form on the M13 Durban-bound, near Cowies Hill.

“We are appealing to people to be safe when driving today.”

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