Ten minutes is about how long it took for a violent, swirling funnel of wind and rain to swoop down on Inanda, north of Durban, and leave several injured and a trail of crumpled homes and buildings in its wake.
On Tuesday, Bhambayi residents were shell-shocked when the mini-tornado blew in from the north, leaving them scrambling to get out of its destructive path.
One of them was a distraught Philisiwe Gumede, whose house lay in ruins in the aftermath of the extreme weather phenomenon.
She said would spend the night with a relative in eMachobeni area of Inanda with her two children.
“I am removing all my valuable items because I am not going to be returning here until I gather enough strength and money to re-roof my house,” said Gumede.
She said while last April’s floods had been catastrophic, her two-roomed dwelling had been left untouched. This time she was not so lucky.
The storm also left parts of the Dube Village Mall destroyed.
A shopkeeper who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “It was not nice. The water has just been gushing down.”
A stone’s throw away from the mall, makeshift containers, where a handful of stallholders plied their trade, were flattened under the onslaught.
Ntathu Mkhwanazi from the neighbourhood watch organisation said they sprang into action helping those in need.
“We came out to help people who are distressed. Two of the stallholders had to be rushed to hospital,” said Mkhwanazi.
He said a woman was almost crushed under heavy concrete blocks.
“Fortunately, through the help of my team, she was brought to safety,” said Mkhwanazi.
She vowed that they would be working throughout the night to ensure people are safe, including finding housing for affected residents.
We are still going to investigate whether it was a super cell thunderstorm or what was happening around that area that could have triggered a tornado. This is quite unusual, however, it does happen. It just has not happened in the affected areas.
— Odirile Modipa, a meteorologist at Saws
“At this stage we are quantifying the numbers of those who might need the assistance. Hopefully through the school bodies we can secure the use of some of the school halls as an interim measure,” said Mkhwanazi.
She said the tragedy had also given rise to opportunistic criminals who are on the prowl for the corrugated roofing for scrap metal.
“Let’s rather collate all the corrugated irons so that we can start our rebuilding process. We told all scrap dealers that they should not accept any items,” said Mkhwanazi.
The South African Weather Service (Saws) in Durban said it will investigate what weather factors led to a tornado developing over parts of north Durban.
“At the moment I can’t comment because I would have to go back and check my models to see what led up to that moment,” said Odirile Modipa, a meteorologist at Saws.
“We received a few videos and have seen what has happened in the affected areas. We need to do our own research.
“We are still going to investigate whether it was a super cell thunderstorm or what was happening around that area that could have triggered a tornado.
“This is quite unusual, however, it does happen. It just has not happened in the affected areas.
“We have had them inland, mostly because the dynamics that start a tornado are more conducive overland.
“But it can happen closer to the coast depending on the dynamics in the environment. It might have been something small, a stronger wind may have turned in the wrong direction and started a tornado.”
Meteorologist Dr Liesl Dyson from the University of Pretoria’s department of geography, geoinformatics and meteorology, said tornadoes “are not common in South Africa, but it is even more unusual to see them when the surface temperatures are relatively cool”.
They are usually formed during a thunderstorm.
“There are ways to predict tornadoes, but in South Africa weather experts are not really on the lookout for them as they are not as common as in America,” said Dr Dyson.
Tornadoes can cause a lot of damage to lives and property and are measured according to the Fujita-Pearson Tornado Scale, a diagnostic scale that measures tornadoes in terms of the damage they cause rather than the strength of the wind or other factors.
According to Saws, a tropical cyclone is an intensely developed low-pressure cell that usually occurs over warm oceans. Its diameter can range between 200km and 2,000km. Tropical cyclones can last for a few days.
A tornado is a violent rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm and is much smaller in diameter, typically less than a few hundred metres, but some are larger than 1km and they usually occur over land. Tornadoes are generally short-lived and can be on the ground for a few seconds to minutes. Some have been known to be on the ground for over an hour, but these are rare. A tornado that occurs over water is called a water spout.
The meteorological service confirmed reports of a tornado that hit Bloemfontein last month.
Photos and videos showed uprooted trees and some damage to buildings in the area.
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