Our town is being besieged by extremely strong sporadic gusts of wind.
The first four photos are of a big tree that fell next to a church building, breaking the windows on its way down.
I took the pictures on Sunday, and during Saturday night we were often awoken by loud noises and the wailing of the wind as it flung some loose items around in our garden. Imagine what a shock you get when a metal dustbin lid is flung onto a wall near your bedroom window. It sounds like a cymbal from hell. An emergency warning was issued for residents to stay indoors and to keep their cars off the roads, as there is a danger of falling trees and flying debris that can cause accidents and damages to the cars.
Let's take a short drive along some backroads to see what things looked like.
Expensive motorized sliding gates were blown over by falling trees and some brave residents were battling in the wind to clear the damages. I can tell you that from the start of our short drive, the damages began to appear. The heartsore thing for us, is that the angry wind destroys so many trees. Damages at homes can be repaired, but a tree that was blown over cannot be repaired.
And here below was another sliding gate that didn't stand a chance against the strength of the wind.
Fences were damaged by trees coming down.
Even road sign planted steel poles had to capitulate in the wind.
Oh yeah, it was a rough period and it will continue until Tuesday.
Thankfully, at this stage no lives have been lost, but I will keep you updated about the story. Some really bad news is that our neighbor sent my wife some photos about a fire that destroyed the historical Blaauwklippen wine estate. Apparently, the fire started on a neighboring farm and the strong wind shifted the fire onto the blaauwklippen farm. It is the second oldest farm in Stellenbosch, with a great history and they reckon that it was the first that started to produce wine. Now all of the historical buildings were burned down to ashes.
The schools are closed on Monday, and the local shopping mall is also closed as a part of its roofing sheets were blown off in the wind. Then there is also news of a truck that had its trailer ripped off by the wind near a tunnel, and the trailer was flipped down the mountainside by the wind. I can only imagine what the wind would do to our little car when we are out on those open roads that are so exposed. We are sure that much more news will reach our ears during this week, and I will share it with you.
We can only hope and pray, that the people that live in the tin shacks in the townships will survive during the start of winter's arrival.
If something similar is going on in your country, please take care.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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