At least 9 have died and more than 2 000 households displaced after heavy rains battered Nelson Mandela Bay and flash floods also wreaked havoc in Buffalo City over the weekend. File Photo.
Short-term insurer Santam said yesterday that it had received hundreds of claims relating to damage caused by severe weather conditions in theEastern Cape over the past few days.
At least nine people died and more than 2 000 households were displaced after heavy rains battered Nelson Mandela Bay, and flash floods wreaked havoc in Buffalo City over the weekend.
Residents of Old Lapland in Kariega in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure.
Santam’s head of non-motor claims, Rowland Ramalingam, said they had activated Catastrophe Claims Management protocols, which require the insurer to deploy personnel to affected areas to service policyholders, and expedite the filing of claims.
Ramalingam said Santam had received just over 254 claims for damage to property and other assets to date, but it was difficult to indicate the total number of these claims at this stage as they were still assessing them.
Ramalingam said: "At this stage we are not certain on the extent of the damage. We also are not certain what the claims will possibly amount to. In the coming days we expect the number of claims to increase as policyholders begin to file claims.
“The 254 claims only affect the Eastern Cape, but could rise even higher as impacted policyholders in KwaZulu-Natal commence filing claims. More importantly we caution the public to take precautions and to be safe.”
In KZN, at least 10 people have died and hundreds displaced after severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, large hail, heavy rainfall and at least two tornadoes wreaked havoc in the province on Monday.
The first tornado occurred between Newcastle and Utrecht over the western interior of KZN early in the afternoon, and a larger tornado developed later in the afternoon around Tongaat, and moved east to the coast near Westbrook and Ballito, where it caused significant damage.
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