By Sue Maclennan
Farmers Thinus and *Nelma Jurgens cleared a landslide from Hell’s Poort pass with their front-end-loader just before sunset on Tuesday 7 December. The mountain of mud and rocks slid down the hill above the pass and spread across half the road on Sunday 5 December during a torrential downpour.
A frantic message circulated on local WhatsApp groups from a driver who had been driving from Bedford to Makhanda when they suddenly found themselves unable to go any further.
No one was harmed and the driver and vehicle eventually got through, but the road has remained dangerous.
“We just had to do something as we were very close to a huge accident with a truck this morning,” said Nelma.
Late yesterday afternoon, Makana Traffic Officer Solomzi Jacobs kept watch while Jurgens drove his front-end-loader on to the narrow pass and shoved the mud off the road.
The mudslide was one of several incidents on Sunday when 50mm rain torrented down in just over 35 minutes in and around Makhanda.
DispatchLive reported on disaster in and around the city, with CBD businesses flooded as masses of litter washing down the town’s streams and gutters plugged stormwater drains and toppled trees blocked roads. Undertaker Ernie Cassels came to the rescue with his TLB as the flood threatened to destroy homes at Sun City informal settlement.
* Name corrected from Thelma to Nelma (sorry!)
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