(Photo: Provided)
A community of 82 people, which includes 24 elderly people, 32 adults and 26 children in 30 households in the Kouga Mountains, has been cut off from all sides from the outside world after the past few days of heavy rain in the area. The community, which lives about 30 km north of Kareedouw, has no road connection or communication and is dependent on itself.
The flood damage to the roads is so serious that even the detour is of no help.
The residents themselves are trying their best, but so far have not been able to make more than six kilometers of their access road passable again.
Carine Strydom, a resident of the area, says the community is doing repairs on the road themselves as much as they can.
“Help from the government is long overdue non-existent,” she says. “We’re making the road ourselves up to the Kouga River.”
However, the river is still too strong to work through and Strydom expects it may take another two weeks before the area will be accessible again.
“We realized a long time ago that help will not come from outside. To rely on each other – this is normal for us.”
What makes the situation worse is that a fault on the local mobile phone tower deprived the community of all communication at the same time. Only Strydom’s house happens to have a satellite connection and it serves as the only link to the outside world. The rest of the community has no way to call for help in case of emergency.
(Photo: Provided)
“The only way to fix the tower is if a technician is flown in with a helicopter,” says Strydom.
“Without communication, the world doesn’t know about us.”
The community are no strangers to seclusion. When heavy rains are forecast in the catchment, which stretches as far as Uniondale, residents prepare for at least three weeks without access to the outside world.
Nevertheless, the current situation, where road connection and communication have been eliminated at the same time, is extraordinary even for these residents.