letting nature back in

I had been expecting to start posting again celebrating brighter, whiter sight after successful cataract surgery, but first intense storm surges along the coast and then the following week widespread flooding across the region, including a “100-year flood” in our village, surpassed all else.

Our house on higher ground was safe, but when the Klein River (translates from Afrikaans to ‘Small’ River) came down in a massive flood, many houses in the lower-lying parts of Stanford village were flooded – to ceiling height in houses closest to the river – and boats had to be deployed to rescue people trapped on ground floors or stranded on rooftops, in lofts or the upper floors of their homes.

This year, the winter had been far wetter than usual and the ground was saturated. More storms arrived in mid-September and circumstances combined with a spring tide led to massive storm surges and gale-force winds along the coast that caused damage to coastal infrastructure and, tragically, several people lost their lives.

Of course, we did not venture out to the coastal areas during the storm surge, but a few days later the seas were still high and dramatic. At other side of this bay, the mouth of the Klein River lagoon is just visible. The storm surge served to open the mouth of the lagoon wider still (the mouth had already been (illegally) breached artificially in May) and so water from the lagoon has been able to flow freely out into the ocean since May this year

Stanford village lies on the southern bank of the Klein River that flows to the Klein River lagoon six kilometres away. The lagoon is about 10 km long and at its widest point about 2 km wide. More often than not the lagoon mouth is closed to the ocean by a sandbar, but periodically this sandbar breaches naturally. But as mentioned in the caption, earlier this year the sandbar was breached artificially, impacting not only the lagoon, its birdlife and other creatures, but also further upstream including in Stanford: the level of the river flowing past Stanford dropped rapidly and significantly following the breaching incident. Below is a report from a local paper on the breaching incident at the lagoon in early May.

Source: https://fliphtml5.com/xkcxj/lzaf/THE_VILLAGE_NEWS_5_May_-_11_May_2023/

But getting back to more recent events in September, less than a week after the storm surges along the coast, the South African Weather Service issued warnings for widespread extreme rainfall, especially over much of the Western Cape and the western region of the Eastern Cape.  In some areas the warnings of disruptive rains were upgraded to an unprecedented “Level 9” (in orange in the map below).

Sources: https://www.weathersa.co.za/ and https://www.meteoblue.com/

Obviously, we were anxious about such unprecedented warnings, though we were uncertain as to what the severity of the implications might be. Along with many others, we resolved to stay at home over the weekend of the 23 and 24 September when the “disruptive rains” were set to arrive. And the widespread rains coupled with strong winds did arrive, including in the mountains and catchment areas.  Floods and/or mudslides affected many communities, villages and towns in parts of the Western and Eastern Cape.

Perhaps the maps (below), clipped from Google Earth and annotated by me, might make it easier to visualise what happened in Stanford to precipitate the “100-year flood” that had such stark consequences for those whose houses were flooded.

The approximate origin (orange bullseye) and the course of the Hartebees River (orange dots) are indicated on the above satellite map, before the Hartebees River meets the Klein River with its course indicated by yellow dots

In the above map as noted in the caption, the orange bullseye indicates the approximate start (at about 300 m above sea level) of the Hartebees River and the orange dots map its course to where it joins the Klein River (approximate origin indicated by yellow bullseye). From the confluence, the river is named the Klein River to where it flows into the lagoon. Three other rivers join the Klein River before it curves south (just to the west of the R326 road shown on the map) and then the river turns again to flow west (parallel to the Klein River mountains), past Stanford (marked by a yellow X), to the lagoon and then into the Atlantic Ocean (just south of Hermanus).

The total length of the Klein River is 80 km, but the distance between its origin and its mouth is only 5 km as the crow flies. The mountainous catchment areas of the river system extend over a combined 200² km.  Heavy rains over this terrain can contribute to significant increases in the volume of water in the river system, and a widespread deluge in a short period of time, especially after the ground is already saturated, quickly adds up to a huge amount of water (Klein River information from http://www.overberg.co.za/content/view/206/28/).

A closer satellite view of the Klein River where it flows past the village of Stanford

Disastrously, on that weekend in September the amount of rain that fell in the catchment areas was so enormous that the river burst its banks way before reaching Stanford. When the fast-flowing waters arrived on Monday morning, 25^th September, over 65 houses in the lower lying parts of Stanford were flooded.

My initial impression of the floods was (literally) very one-sided as we were cut-off from the rest of the village by the usually small Mill Stream, which was inundated by water from the Klein River pushing up the course of the stream, rather than from the stream itself being in flood.

Above is a view of the Mill Stream taken in the morning when the flood waters were still quite high. Some houses along the usually small stream were flooded by waters from the Klein River that inundated the lower reaches of the stream by flooding upstream

This is what the dip in the road and low-level bridge over the Mill Stream usually look like. The stream is flowing from right to left under the bridge and down to the Klein River

Another view of the road taken from higher ground. I took this photo on Monday evening, 25^th September, when the flood waters had dropped considerably. The main part of the village is on the other side and adjacent to the low-lying part of the village that experienced the worst flooding

As we were cut-off, we had to rely on social media to learn that the Klein River at the height of the flood had overwhelmed the bridge on the main road (R43), which connects the village to Hermanus in one direction and Gansbaai in the other. This main road was closed during the flood.

Above is an anonymous photo that was circulated on social media on the day of the flood when the bridge on the R43 was underwater from the Klein River in flood

Eventually, on that Monday morning after the rain had stopped and the water level of the river had started to drop, we ventured out to look at the river from high ground.

In the foreground is part of the Wandelpad walking trail, submerged by flood waters as it drops in height. The tops of trees adjacent to the lower path are sticking out of the water

In the video below, the river is still in flood although the level has dropped slightly since its height when over 65 Stanford houses upstream had been flooded. As can be seen, the river has burst its banks – the usual contour of the bank on the other side is indicated by the tree line. The water flow is fast and powerful.

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The river flooded out into farmland on the other side. The bank on this side is elevated high above the level of the water.

The trees below the elevated bank are partially submerged by the flood water. The flooded houses are upstream of this section of the river

Astonishing footage of rescue operations by boat came out on social media. Here is an image clipped from one of the anonymous videos. In the background a red rubber-duck rescue boat can be seen approaching one of the flooded houses. A partially submerged car is in the foreground. Many cars were submerged while still parked in garages and yards as the waters rose too quickly for people to escape. It is estimated that well over 80 vehicles were written off

The above image is from a video that was shot from a small boat ferrying people rescued from their flooded houses to safety. Partially submerged houses can be seen in the background. Miraculously there was no loss of life, even all pets were rescued. Huge credit is due to all the rescuers that included community members, local emergency teams and National Sea Rescue Institute volunteers

Even though we were not directly affected, I find it hard to recount the aftermath of the flood. We helped for a few days at one of the flooded houses. As the flood water had swirled around inside flooded rooms as it tried to escape back into the river, the turbulent water floated, tipped over and mixed-up large pieces of furniture and appliances such as fridges, together with smaller items, causing total chaos and leaving everything saturated and coated in stinky mud.

Treasured items including cameras, books, art work, photographs and files of documents were destroyed, in addition to almost all electrical appliances being written off, and most soft furnishings and furniture, such as built-in cupboards, trashed. Some clothing, linen and blankets could be salvaged, but only after repeated laundering to remove the tenacious and smelly mud.

During clean-up, a small sample of trashed books in one of the flooded houses (above). The floors, window sills and all horizontal surfaces below the flood line were coated in dark, glutinous mud that hardened to a concrete-like consistency if left in place to dry. The smell of the mud and rapidly blooming mould was unpleasant and unhealthy to say the least

People who found themselves trapped in their houses as the river rose fast had to make quick life-or-death decisions. Some, in single storey-buildings were unable to open doors against the force of the flood waters and could not escape through burglar-proofed windows. They had to wait trapped inside, desperate to be rescued.

For many the trauma runs deep and the losses are profound. Houses that were flooded are still drying out two months after the flood. The process of recovery is slow and arduous, stressful and expensive. To date, most of the homes that were flooded are still not fit for occupation and a few more months of repair work will be necessary.

In the face of the disaster, the community did come together to help in many ways. More recently a national supermarket chain decided to step in and bring some good cheer and to tell the story of the Stanford flood and celebrate the spirit of community. It sponsored street banquets for those directly affected by the floods including the rescuers, and sponsored colourful Christmas lights of astonishing complexity and detail along the main street in the centre of the village.

The lights really do provide cheer to Stanford and also serve to attract visitors and bring trade to local entrepreneurs and businesses

Last week the monthly Stanford Sunset Market was greatly enhanced by the Christmas lights, drawing lots of visitors from far and wide, and the market on the village green spilled over into the main street on a balmy night of bonhomie.

Families thronged the main street in an atmosphere of cheerful calm

A pink rhino and on the right a blue giraffe browsing from a red tree brightened up a local restaurant

Among my favourites: attended by beadwork weaver birds, woven weavers’ nests in lights hang in one of the trees on the main street

Yesterday we had to visit a neighbouring town, and on the way back we stopped at a low-level bridge over the Klein River a few kilometres upstream of Stanford. The bridge has just been reopened after damaging washaways of the banks. The river is now a placidly moving small river, its water stained amber by tannins from plants leaching into the river, which is a characteristic of many rivers and streams in the region.

The river in flood washed away the approaches to the bridge. The embankments have now been rebuilt and reinforced

A view upstream from the bridge showing something of how much earth and sand was moved to rebuild the road and embankments

During the flood, the water in the river running wide, deep and fast as it passed over this bridge still had a further 10 km to travel to overwhelm the low-lying parts of Stanford.  Many items from Stanford houses and gardens were carried away in the torrent. Some larger items were later recovered in the lagoon, but much else was washed out to sea. On social media, a photo of an upholstered dining chair that had been found washed up on a beach in Hermanus led to it being returned to its owner in Stanford. To my knowledge, the other dining chairs in the set were never found.

These three boats used for pleasure cruises down to the lagoon, are back at their damaged moorings in Stanford. They were washed away during the flood and a few days later they were recovered in the lagoon. The boardwalk and jetty need repair. On the far bank eucalyptus trees are still standing though with many branches broken. During the flood, branches sounded like gunshots going off as they snapped from the force of the water

Staying with the watery theme, and returning to the subject of my cataract surgery, I was surprised to read that the reason why eye cataracts are so named is because, ultimately, advanced cataracts develop into a white patch that noticeably covers the lens of the eye giving the eye a milky appearance, similar to the appearance of white water in an actual waterfall or cataract.

My cataracts were not advanced enough to be easily noticeable to someone observing my eyes, but they were clouding my vision with an amber stain. It is common for vision to be dulled by amber, brown or yellow colouration as cataracts develop in the lenses of the eye.

I only became aware of this amber discolouration after the surgery when I was amazed at how white and bright my sight had become. I was amused though that the association between eye cataracts and actual waterfalls was made even more appropriate by the amber colour of the water in local rivers and streams.

Amber-tinted waters of a local river

A representation of before and after cataract surgery – an amber-tinted image on the left and bright post-surgery vision on the right!

But as I said at the start of this post, for this village and its residents, almost all else has been surpassed by the flooding that took place in September. To sum it all up, I end with a link to the recently-released promotional video on the Stanford floods made by a national supermarket chain.  Part of a marketing campaign it is, but it certainly does convey a lot about the floods that changed this village and the lives of many of its residents.

Posted by Carol