Margate residents pitch in to clean storm-hit town

The Tidy Town Shelly Beach to Margate Group has been leading efforts to clear debris from the beachfront after Sunday's heavy rains.

 

"We're in the last part of the clean-up on the Margate beachfront, so I think by tomorrow (Thursday) tourists will be back on the beach,” said organiser Stephen Herbst.

 

“However, the infrastructure around the Margate area, storm drainage, and the sinkholes will have to be attended to obviously with the engineers and the local municipality but we're working hand in hand with everyone.”

 

Herbst said they have already filled hundreds of bags with debris.

 

He said volunteers have turned up in their numbers while businesses are also pitching in.

 

"The feeling on the ground is one of positivity. There's a jovial feeling on the beach. The people who participate are there because there are good memories from the past, or they are making memories there as we speak.

 

“The storm has a silver lining. We are seeing that with our community, we're just South Africans, and we pull together, and the South Coast community is one that really shines."

 

 

The storm has killed five people and has left a trail of destruction.

 

Herbst says he's never seen anything like it in the 32 years he's lived in Margate...

 READ: KZN govt wants flood-hit Margate declared a disaster

"We also haven't seen a magnitude of damage after the floods, we've had flash floods before we had them in 1997 but to see the docks of church and the base of Margate at the entrance by the Sasol garage to be completely damaged and torn down. 

"I see pump station again flooded and then the tar of roads completely removed and severed as well as the people where their businesses have been extensively damaged. The people have really felt it