Stormy weather, gloom & misery everywhere: Dramatic photos of Cape being lashed by storms – June 2009

Mighty storms, with strong winds and extremely high seas, hit the Western Cape hard this week. The storms devastated numerous communities across the Peninsula. Among the hardest hit were residents of informal settlements, many of whom  had to be moved to places of safety after their homes were flooded by the overnight rains on Wednesday night.

High seas and winds also impacted on the maritime industry with a few boats grounded and others coming perilously close to shore while cars in a parking lot near the Otter Trail were washed away by high seas. , Trees crashed through power lines leaving several suburbs in the dark and a massive old oak at the start of Government Avenue was uprooted and had to be sliced and diced before being removed.

Meanwhile, an unmanned barge, the Margaret, and another unmanned vessel, the GTO XVII, were aground in Jacobs Bay and Brenton-on-Sea, due to gale-force winds. A container, with a tanker carrying a form of Cresol, a chemical used to make disinfectants and household cleaners, washed up in Camps Bay beach on Thursday afternoon. Another one was seen floating at Sea Point. These were just two of 21 containers lost at sea on Tuesday when the Safmarine Meru battled winds of more than 100km/h and swells higher than 12m.