Serious Storms

Trip Start Nov 15, 2007
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Trip End Dec 10, 2007


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Flag of South Africa  ,
Monday, November 26, 2007

Today started off relatively well weatherwise so we headed off to the beach for a walk, not quite swimming weather just yet. It all went well, we even sat at the beach café, which is right on the sand, and drank delicious mango smoothies and then...... the wind picked up and the clouds came flying in at a speed I have not seen in Durban before.
 
We took some photos, paid the bill and then beat a hasty retreat to the car. By the time we were in the car the first massive drops were falling and the car was being buffeted by the ever strengthening wind. A car guard was helping a surfer get his surfboard into his car to stop him getting blown away with it.
 
By the time we got to the main road towards home the rain was so hard that the visibility was just a few metres ahead with everyone driving at a snails pace, hazard lights flashing and not sure what to make of this wacky, weird weather. One of the traffic lights stopped working so we waited for the cars on either side of us to edge forward first before we nervously joined them. A short while later we got back to my mother's office to fetch her and the storm was all but over. Sadly the worst of it in the form of damage was yet to come.
 
That night we found a leak into the flat. Part of the roof of the block of flats had been blown off by the storm and leaked into the unoccupied penthouse above us and then through the floor to us. Over the course of the next week we lived with our floor covered with towels and buckets catching the drips.
 
Finally it was too much for the penthouse bathroom ceiling and the roof collapsed with the accompanying noise and banging. This was after 9 PM so we went up to investigate to be greeted by the mess of the bathroom roof on the floor. Thanks goodness there was a decent tarpaulin covering the roof and even more relief that it did not bring our ceiling down too!
 
Over the course of the next few dry days the roofing contractors did a fantastic job of a new roof, a bathroom ceiling better than new for the penthouse and, at last, time for us to get rid of the drip-catching towels and buckets.
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