Responding to an emergency call on Sunday afternoon (10/11) in section H1 of Botshabelo, near Sechaba-Se-Maketse School, officials found the body of an elderly woman (71) lying on the ground, police spokesperson Peter Kareli said. It’s clear she was struck by lightning.
Emergency services pronounced her dead at the scene. Police have opened an inquest into the circumstances surrounding her death.
Free State EMS spokesperson Sipho Towa confirmed that two persons in the Moroka section of Thaba Nchu suffered storm-related injuries. Local houses in Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo suffered extensive damage.
Two boys also drowned in Thabong, Welcome, at a water-filled excavation, a sewage network project.
In Boshof, in the district municipality of Lejweleputswa, a total of 54 houses were damaged by heavy thunderstorms, with their roofs blown away. The district response team was dispatched with 15 rescue screens, blankets and mattresses and provided temporary shelter for the affected families.
‘Families housed at Caravan Park Boshof’
The Red Cross has also been called in to provide much-needed support. Families who have been displaced are temporarily housed at Caravan Park Boshof.
On Saturday, the SA Weather Service issued a level 4 impact-based warning, warning of severe thunderstorms causing heavy rainfall in the Free State, central and western North West and parts of the Northern Cape. The advisory warned of possible threats from “strong damaging winds, excessive lightning and hail.”
The Free State has experienced numerous extreme weather events in the past year. In September last year, high winds caused significant damage to at least fifty homes and a school in Bethlehem and Harrismith.
Three months later, more than ninety houses in Bloemfontein and nearby areas suffered major damage.
About 250 houses were affected in Van Stadensrus alone. A seven-year-old boy was killed, while a woman and a baby were hospitalized with storm-related injuries.
Last month, Free State Prime Minister MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae called for lightning safety training at schools after a student from Theunissen died when she was struck by lightning.
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