adminLeonard Ncube and Adelaide Moyo Chronicle Reporters
HEARVY rains accompanied by strong winds that briefly lashed Victoria Falls on Sunday left a trail of destruction, uprooting trees, blowing away roofs and destroying precast walls. The storm started just after 4PM and lasted a few minutes.
The destruction was most severe in Chinotimba suburb.
An Opel Kadett was almost flattened by a big acacia tree in Chinotimba’s Railways section.
The owner of the vehicle, Tafadzwa Chivandire said he was still to come to terms with his loss.
“I was inside the house when strong winds suddenly started blowing and it began raining. One of my neighbours called me saying a tree fell on my car and I thought it was just a small branch. When I went outside I was shocked by what I saw as the tree had reduced my car to a wreck and blocked the road,” said Chivandire.
He said he bought the Opel Kadett a few years ago before he got employed at Elephant Hills Resort and it was his means of transport to get to work.
Another uprooted tree almost blocked the main gate to the Victoria Falls Police Station. Electric poles fell, blocking roads, resulting in a blackout in a section popularly known as Room Line in Chinotimba suburb.
The chairman of the Victoria Falls Residents’ Association Mkhosana chapter Christopher Ndiweni also had a precast wall at his house along Reynard Road in the low density suburb destroyed after a tree fell on it.
“A tree fell onto the precast wall and telephone and electricity lines and as we speak there’s no power at the house. I thank God that my Mercedes Benz which I’d parked next to the tree wasn’t damaged,” Ndiweni said.
“The whole thing happened in the twinkle of an eye if you consider the amount of property that was destroyed according to reports we’re getting. It’s been a long time since we last had such experiences,” Ndiweni said.
Moses Tshuma from Chinotimba said a big tree missed his house by a few centimetres and destroyed his garden and fruit trees.
“It’s fortunate that the house was spared as we could have been left homeless judging by the size of the tree. We were in the house with my family when the tree fell and you can imagine what could have happened,” he said.
Ward 5 Councillor Ritchie Mguni in whose ward the destruction occured said he received a report of two houses that were destroyed and several trees that fell on houses.
Last week Ward 11 Councilor Edmore Zhou encouraged residents to insure their property against natural disasters such as fire and thunderstorms, saying with climate change, anything was possible.
He said this while commissioning two houses built by residents who contributed $5 per household to assist families that lost their houses to fire resulting in thousands of dollars worth of property being destroyed.
“We encourage residents to insure their properties in preparation for unforeseen catastrophes such as fire and destruction of houses by rains. It’s easier to mitigate such loses with insurance cover,” Clr Zhou said.
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