The flooding along the Garden Route has not only caused havoc in residents home and businesses but has also affected many schools in the area.
Areas such as George, Oudtshoorn, Mossel Bay, Bitou, Kannaland, Hessequa and Knysna were severely affected by heavy rains and flooding on Monday.
And while residents were urged to stay at home, provisions had to be made for pupils in the affected areas and especially matriculants who are writing their final exams.
Bronagh Hammond, a spokesperson for the department of education explained that extreme flooding resulted in 49 schools being closed in George and surrounding areas such as Wittedrift, Pacaltsdorp and Grootbrak.
“Two rural schools remain closed due to access restrictions. (Mooi-Uitsig PS and Klipdrift PS).
“Team work between the Eden and Karoo District office, principals and examination officials led to ensuring that all NSC examination venues were open for learners to write their Life Sciences 2 paper.
“We would also like to thank all those that assisted in getting Matric candidates to their exam venues under very trying conditions,” said Hammond.
Furthermore, five schools reported that some of their classrooms and hostel rooms were flooded. These include Eden Technical HS, Olympia skool, Aurial College, Kranshoek PS and Protea High.
Hammon said they were currently assessing the damages.
“The costs of the damages and the required repairs are to be determined.”
Meanwhile, Chantel Edwards-Klose, a spokesperson for the George municipality, said several areas had power outages and that the Electrotechnical Services Directorate continued to work on repairs in the affected areas.
“Power in the CBD, Saasveld, Tamsui MS Hops, Wilderness, has been restored, while Pacaltsdorp’s outage is estimated to be repaired at 8pm.” No time has been estimated for repairs to Wilderness Seven Passes and Geelhoutboom Du Toit lines yet.
“Zone 7, Thembalethu and Victoria Bay estimated time of repair 2pm.
“We will update as they are completed. We apologise for the inconvenience. Extreme rain and flooding have caused extensive damage to the power network.”