Durban Storm Aftermath at Lily's Cottage

And then the rains came and left a trail of destruction.

This was alongside a stream not far from us.

Fortunately we were not affected badly, only a couple of sinkholes in the garden and a whole load of sand washed on to the paving, one benefit is that the pool is overflowing so we will not need to top it up with precious and costly municipal water.

A small sinkhole in our one bank and across the road from us hectic erosion on the school's steep bank with a large tree fallen over - they were busy replanting this, obviously thinking we're out of the rainy season, but the weather is doing strange things these days!

Our pool filled to the top; it was still raining early on Tuesday morning when I took this photo.

A whole load of sand washed onto the paving, but really was cleaned up in no time today.

Water pooled in one area where the paving is not sloping correctly - the contractors were not listening at the time and hubby was so fed up by then after major renovations, that he just left it for another day!

A nearby boundary wall downed by the storm, thank goodness hubby made sure all our retaining walls have storm water drains behind them as well as hectic steel so it will take an earth quake to move his walls!

Water still gushing out one of his storm water pipes some 24 hours after the rain had stopped - a beautiful sight for an engineer! Just goes to show how much underground water there is!

Then as I sat down to write this post, I received a call from a lady whose family lost their entire home.

This family's neighbour's boundary retaining wall came crashing down onto their property, and all the bricks, concrete and water-logged earth pushed one side of their house's wall over, nearly killing their one son!

A tall wardrobe fell over onto his bed, actually saving his life as everything else came tumbling into the room.
They've lost most of their possessions, their car is still buried under all the mud and building debris!

This family needs temporary accommodation and fortunately we can accommodate them in our self catering airbnb Lily's Cottage for the next two weeks at least; we already have students coming for nearly the entire month of May but I'm sure they can be accommodated nearby at my sister in law's airbnb.

How do you put your life in order again having lost everything, including the roof over your head?

Insurance will pay up, but to rebuild from scratch is going to be a long process and all those precious memories and sentimental keepsakes can never be replaced!

My photos showing the little damage we suffered after the storms of this past Monday night pales in comparison to what this family went through! I will get their permission and share their photos just to show the might of water-logged earth!

Then more tragic news started coming through.
Someone saw the police at a stream near us and a lady was there crying, we heard later that they found a missing man in the stream, so sad! The stream is like a raging river now, can hear it on our verandah and it's way down in the valley!

Many other instances of cars being swept away by rivers overflowing onto low-lying bridges, obviously not built to withstand such long and intense rains!

But after the storm, the sun always comes out, and although it's been very shy today, there were little glimmers of sunshine.

First photo taken the morning after the rain, clouds still looking threatening. The other photo was taken this morning with less clouds and a little blue sky starting to peek out.

Our giant Papaya tree is still standing after the storm.

Our little lady is still drawing water from the well.

And my Tamarillos are still bearing luscious fruit, although most have been picked by now!