115.The Montagu Flood of 1981
THE FLOOD OF 25 JANUARY 1981
Something about what happened
Based on articles compiled by Heinie Heydenrych and others
The flood that struck the towns of Laingsburg and Montagu on Sunday 25 January 1981 captured the imagination of South Africans across language, racial and political boundaries like no other natural catastrophe ever before.
Never had the price in human lives been so high and the cost in infrastructure so enormous. And the fact that a flood could wreak such havoc in a normally dry part of the country added to the shock and disbelief.
The map below, which appeared in Die Burger shortly after the tragedy, helps one to see the events in perspective. The shaded area starting from above Merweville in the Moordenaarskaroo north-east of Laingsburg, right down to south-west of De Doorns, and stretching as far as Pietersfontein and the upper reaches of the Keisie River, received an unparalleled amount of rain in the 24 hours before the flood. Between Merweville and Sutherland 213mm was measured, while the town of Touws River received no less than 100mm. The seriousness of this unusual downpour can be gauged when one considers that the average annual rainfall of Touws River is about 260mm. The rest of the shaded area also recorded totally unusual downpours with the result that normally calm and even dry streams such as the Dwyka, Buffels, Groot, Prins, Touws and Keisie Rivers came down in flood, bursting their banks and sweeping away everything in their paths. At Gouritz River mouth no fewer than 15 electricity transformers washed out to sea in the few days after 25 January.
At the time the death and destruction in Laingsburg dominated the news. This is understandable in view of the scale of the tragedy in that town. One cannot argue with the figures: more than a 100 people missing and many left homeless. But, because of this, the flood in Montagu received less publicity at the time. The facts are that in Montagu the death toll was 13 and the damage to agriculture in the Keisie and Baden areas was enormous. This account is an attempt to reconstruct the disaster in and around Montagu, particularly for those new residents who were not around at the time.
The drama started late on the afternoon of Sunday the 25th. The heavy rain along the upper reaches of the Keisie River had soon filled the Pietersfontein Dam.
Pietersfontein Dam
Picture: Rawson’s website
Pietersfontein dam wall from an empty dam
Luckily its wall held, otherwise the magnitude of the damage in Montagu would have been far greater. Even so, the unequalled downpour led to the dramatic increase in the volume of water in the river, with a swell increasing in size as it gained momentum on its course towards the town.
The road to the Koo and N1 was closed by the flooding Keisie river
The first place the wall of water struck was at the old Baths Hotel, which stood where the present Avalon Springs Hotel is now. The fact that the river had to enter the narrow Badskoof immediately after the hotel complex, causing the water to dam up, probably added to the damage caused. But an eyewitness who survived the events, Mr. Amos van Zyl, manager of the hotel, told later that he saw how a six metre high wall of muddy brown water came rolling down the course of the Keisie towards the hotel complex at about 5pm that afternoon.
Col. J.J. van Rooyen, a retired railway police officer who acted as caretaker at the complex, jumped into his car with the intention of hauling a caravan with three occupants parked in the caravan park to safety. Moments later the caravan came drifting past the hotel followed by Col. Van Rooyen’s green Chevrolet, the remains of which are pictured below.
Unfortunately he drowned, but the male occupant of the caravan, Mr. D.J. Kotzé of Pretoria, was flung out into the water and miraculously managed to pull himself to safety by grabbing the branch of a tree. Sadly his wife and her sister, a Mrs de Villiers, were swept away in the caravan. Mrs De Villiers’ body was found a month later on a farm near Ashton.
Mr. Van Zyl, a few staff members and a handful of guests in the hotel escaped via a back door towards the koppie behind the building. The flood water reached almost to the ceiling of the first floor of the hotel, and mud and debris hung out of this floor’s windows after the disaster.
Today a plaque erected by the Municipality on the rockface some 100 metres past the new Avalon Springs Hotel indicates the level of the floodwater. However, Mr Wolf-Dieter Sowade, owner of the Avalon Springs, maintains that the plaque is too low, because a level line drawn from the ceiling of the section of the old building that was retained would end up several metres above it.
The plaque is in the far corner of the property, just before the fence, mounted about 2.m – 3m above ground level….
Pictures: Gavin Hatherley (2024)
Be that as it may, the central section of the old hotel was incorporated into the new six storey building. The rest of the building was so badly damaged that it had to be demolished.
The Baths Hotel which had belonged to the municipality, was subsequently bought by Mr. Wolf-Dieter Sowade, whose father was the owner of the old Avalon Hotel in Market Street, which was later converted into Avalon Place.
Wolf-Dieter Sowade on the left with friends Berndt and Monika Richert
Ella Prins: 20/10/2019
Montagu, Tableview, Bloubergstrand
Avalon Hotels, Viper Lounge.
Dit is vir my baie seer om vandag met julle mee te deel dat Wolf-Dieter Sowade (1958-2019), voorheen van Avalon Hotels Montagu en daarna Viper Lounge Tableview tot Feb 2019, sy aardse tuiste verlaat het. Hy het die stryd teen kanker verloor.
Dieter was ‘n baie besondere mens en het baie harte geraak. Hy was in besigheid en vriendskap ‘n legende. Hy het sy personeel goed behandel en baie geleer.— feeling heartbroken.
Vir sy vriende en familie was hy ‘n ongelooflike hartsmens.
Hy was vir my ‘n broer, baas, hero bitter goeie vriend. Ek gaan ons gesels mis, maar ek gun hom sy rus.
Dieter het sy lewe voluit gelewe, al was dit soms moeilik, was hy altyd ‘n moedige mens. Hy het sy rallys geniet. Getoer en was ‘n goeie man en pa vir sy gesin, die Sowade Clan.
Hy sal veral onthou word vir die Avalon, Avalon Springs, Avalon Grand, Avalon Bonnievale, Viper Lounge en Harley Davidson Rallys.
RIP MY German Brother. Ons harte is stukkend, maar ons weet jy is verlos van die swaarkry. Ons harte is met die familie en kinders.
Apart from the loss of life at the hotel complex, the resort itself was damaged beyond repair. Nothing was left of the lawn and bowling green in front of the hotel, nor the cold water pool and children’s pool with their change rooms, the parking area, or the caravan park with its ablution block.
The wall of water rushing down the course of the Keisie River was bound to cause further damage downstream. After having swept through the hotel grounds, the mass of water was forced into the narrow Badskloof. The very nature of this gorge with its perpendicular cliffs reinforced the power of the water. By the time the floodwater emerged from the gorge for 2 km. it therefore spilled with renewed energy onto the plain past Eyssenhuis, causing havoc as far as it went.
Before the devastation
The water rounds the bend through Badskloof from the Avalon Springs
Only the foundation of the original Eyssen mill remained
The first tragedy at this end of Badskloof occurred at the suspension bridge across the river to Montagu West. The Viktor family from De Doorns – André, his wife Drieka and their four-year-old son André junior – were in Montagu West for the weekend visiting André’s respective parents. Late that afternoon the Viktors were getting worried about her parents who had to go to friends at Bonnievale. At about 5.10pm Drieka telephoned them to warm them about the rising level of the river and promised to meet them at the suspension bridge.
Forty minutes later André and Drieka drove down to the river and parked the car with little André in it above the junction of Middel and Meul Streets. André and Drieka walked down to the river and stood on the suspension bridge to watch the water and wait for her parents. Suddenly the water level rose, and André hurried to the car to move it further away from the river. Halfway to the car the water was already up to his knees. As if in a silent movie, Drieka could see how the car was lifted by the water, and she and another lady on the suspension bridge fled to the Montagu side. Eyewitnesses saw André senior swimming lower down trying to reach firm ground, but he was not seen again, his body according to Mrs Van Dyk, his mother-in-law who still lives in Montagu, was found in Cogmanskloof, six years after the flood. The boy’s body was discovered the next day beyond Ashton.
Mr. Jan Jordaan of Montagu West, an eyewitness to the events, says that he had parked his car immediately behind that of the Viktor’s. Before André ran to his car, Jan had walked to his own car to move it away. He saw the little boy standing on the back seat and intended removing him from his father’s car as soon as he had moved his own car, but someone else had meanwhile parked right behind him. In the minute or two that it took him to manoeuvre his own car out of it sandwiched position, the water swept the Viktors’ car away, taking with it the boy inside.
By this time the river had broken its banks and the water carried with it a whole orchard which stood on the site immediately to the right past the low water bridge, where there is now a vineyard. Further human tragedies were to follow: next to Middel Street, opposite the site of the present caravan park, stood a labourer’s cottage where the Scheepers family lived. When the water fanned out over the floodplain in that direction, the father, 40 year-old Johannes Scheepers, his wife Klara (38), and their children climbed onto the roof to escape the flood. According to some reports a floating tree trunk swept them off the roof. The couple and their six children aged three to 14 years, were all drowned. Only the foundations of the cottage were left after the water had subsided.
At Krakedouw, halfway to Pietersfontein, a two year old boy, Klaas Matthys, had meanwhile also drowned.
Although no further lives were lost, the floodwater caused many a human drama in which townspeople only just escaped with their lives. The homestead on the farm De Bos, which belonged to Jaco le Roux, was turned into an island when the water swept past it on two sides.
De Bos (Behind rondawels) and Willie Basson’s rondawel home in the foreground
When the drama started at the entrance of Montagu West, Le Roux telephoned his wife from the town side of the river, advising her to lock all the outside doors, with herself and their three children in one of the inside rooms. While he was talking to her, the connection was broken as the telephone poles were washed away. At one stage mother and children were sitting on top of the piano, watching tree trunks and other objects drifting past the window. Jaco remained helpless as he watched the floodwater swirl around his home, and it was only after the water level had subsided, at about 5am the next morning that he knew his wife was safe when he saw her from afar.
A similar experience befell Willie Basson and his family in their rondawel home across the way from De Bos, on the corner of Middel and Brown Streets. His story as reported in the Burger by Ken McIntyre follows;
“Tot Sondagoggend het ons 55 mm reën gehad. Wat daarna geval het weet ek nie. My meter is weg en ek moes veg vir my lewe”.
Mnr. Willem Basson (60) en sy vrou, Maria, moes Sondag- middag bo-op ’n klavier staan en aan hul rietdakhuis se balke vasklou om nie deur die waterwassa meegesleur te word nie. Die Bassons bly in MontaguWes. As ’n mens op Kanonkop staan, kan jy duidelik sien hoe die Keisierivier om, oor, deur en verby die huis gespoel het.
Die betonvloer is al wat van die motor huis en skuur oorgebly het. Die woonstel, wat ’n hanetree van die huis is, staan nog, maar dit is erg beskadig. Die huis, wat soos drie ron- dawels lyk, het oënskynlik die water se geweld trotseer. Net ’n paar vensters is stukkend.
Die ergste skade is binne. Al die vertrekke het ongeveer ’n meter modder in. Die klavier wat die Bassons op gestaan het en die kaggel is omtrent al wat in die sitkamer is. Die kombuis lyk asof ’n reus met die stoof, yskas en meubels gespeel het en dit sommer net neergegooi het toe hy vir die speletjie moeg word.
Van hul persoonlike besittings lê oor ’n wye gebied om die huis terwyl ek en mnr. Basson gesels, kyk mev. Basson, Albertus en Marietjie wat hulle kan red.
Ek was die eerste koerantman om met mnr. Basson te gesels. Ons het eergister oggend gesels terwyl hy die modder uit hul klere gespoel het.
Hyhet 22 Merinoskape gehad waarvan die ooie elke jaar ’n drieling gehad het. Hy het drie kalwers gehad wat met die hand grootgemaak is. Sy 1000 appelkoosbome het verdwyn. ”Ek het 50 ton ’n jaar geoes” sê hy. Al drie sy voertuie is weg.
”My plekkie is onlangs vir R42000 waardeer. Ek het niks’ oor nie”, sê mnr. Basson.
Die Bassons se gewone Sondag roetine is om ongeveer 17h00 wreed ontwrig. Hulle het Sondagoggend oudergewoonte kerk toe gegaan en ná kerk het mnr. Basson die diere uit die kraal laat kom.
Hulle het na ete bietjie gaan lê. Dit het ongeveer 14h30 hard begin reën. Laat hy self verder vertel:
”Ek sê toe vir die vrou: Jong, dinge lyk nie mooi nie. Jy weet ek het nog altyd gevrees dat water in die huis gaan kom. Ek het nog altyd gesê dat mense nie hier moes gebou het nie.
”Toe die rivier om 17h00 begin afkom, het ek uitgegaan om die skape in die skuur te sit. Ek was toe al kniediep in die water.
’’Die kalwers was reeds in die skuur. Ek wou net hul nekbande afhaal toe ’n wal water van ongeveer 2m hoog vir my en die kalwers vat.
”Ek wou by die vrou in die huis kom en net toe ek by die skuur uitgaan vang ’n gedeelte van die skuur my agter die nek en druk my in die water in. Ek moes my uit die stroom worstel. Die stroom het my gevat tot teen die garage. Toe die garage wegspoel het ek na die huis probeer werk.
”Nog ’n wal water van tussen 2 en 3m vat my. Ek was magteloos. Ek het gedink ek is ’n ’’goner” — maar, net soos die garage vroeër my lewe gered het, red my bakkie my. Dit het gekeer dat ek nie wegspoel nie.
”Ek het toe aan die struike voor die huis gegryp en tot by die voordeur gesukkel. Ek en my vrou kon eers nie die deur oopkry nie. Toe ek uiteindelik in die huis kom het ek gesê ons moet sitkamer toe. Daar was reeds water in die huis.
”Ons het bo-op die klavier gekniel, opgestaan toe die water styg en aan die balke vasgehou. Ons het vir ongeveer 30 minute by die venster uitgekyk na die massa water en gebid dat die huis moet hou.
“Dit was die blyste oomblik in my lewe toe ek sien dat die water begin daal en die huis staan nog.
”Ons is om na die slaapkamer toe. Ons bed het bo-op die water gedryf, maar die skuimrubbermatras was nog redelik droog. Ons het met ’n groot gesukkel winterslaapklere aangetrek.
”Dit was baie koud. Ons het die nag in die kamer deurgebring, maar dit was’ so ongemaklik dat ons nie juis kon slaap nie.
”Dit is die tweede keer in tien maande dat die huis deur water bedreig is. Die Here het vir my ’n les geleer. Ek kan nie langer hier bly nie”, het mnr. Basson gesê.
’n Kleurling egpaar wat al jare vir die Basson-gesin werk, Johannes en Clara Scheepers, is saam met hul ses kinders meegesleur.
Die polisie het naby Ashton reeds die lyke van mnr. Scheepers en drie van die kinders, onderskeidelik elf, sewe en vier jaar oud, gekry.
Die Bassons se seun, Albertus, wat tans met sy militêre diensplig besig is, het van Pretoria af gekom om by sy ouers te wees. Sy vriendin mej. Marietjie Smit, se ouers het vir die Basson- gesin ’n huis aangebied in die dorp.
Kalkoennes
Two houses were destroyed by the flood on the farm Kalkoennes near the tunnel in Cogmanskloof. Mr Chris Torrance with his wife and baby, as well as his parents, the Rev. and Mrs E.O. Torrance, spent several hours on top of a roof during the Sunday night.
The Burger reports on Kalkoennes as follows
Vyf se angs-nag op dak beskryf
Die gesin Torrance, wat verlede Sondag ʼn angsvolle nag deurgemaak het in hul ouers se huis naby Kalkoennes in Kogmanskloof, is veilig ná eergister se vloedwater. Hulle was nog by die huis, waar hulle opruimingswerk gedoen het.
Mnr. en mev. Chris. Torrance, hul baba en hul ouers, eerw. en mev. E.O. Torrance, het verlede Sondagnag verskeie ure op hul huis se dak in Kogmanskloof deurgebring nadat die vloedwater albei die huise op die terrain heeltemaal oorstroom het.
Mev. Isbell Torrance het aan Die Burger vertel dat haar eggenoot, ʼn afgetrede Anglikaanse priester al in die bed was toe die water hulle oorval. Hul kleinkind is deur sy vader na ʼn motor gedra wat teen die koppie, buite bereik van die water, geparkeer was. Mnr. Torrance moes later weer sy weg oopveg deur die water om die motor op hoër op te parker. Die res van die gesin het op die huis se dak geklim.
GEDRA
Die ure het soos ʼn ewigheid gevoel, het mev. Torrance vertel. Sy het gesê haar gewaarwording op die huis se dak was een van algehele verbystering. Die ergste van alles was die geraas van die vloedwater en die reuk van die modder.
Eerw. Torrance is die volgende dag deur die klowe na die teerpad gedra, van waar hy na die plaaslike hospital gebring is. Hy ly aan artritis.
Hy en sy eggenoot was eergister nog op die dorp terwyl hul kinders opruimingswerk gedoen het en die Keisie en Kingnariviere vir die tweede keer in ʼn week afgekom het.
The Torrance homestead
The damage to farms in the area was enormous; many tons of topsoil had disappeared together with thousands of fruit trees. The area hardest hit in this respect was Baden, in some places the river course had changed for good, and many farmers would have been financially ruined had the Government not made millions in aid available.
Lower down the river at Ashton, the flood had caused extensive damage to the Langeberg factory – more than 2 000 tons of mud had to be removed from the factory and carted away. Empty cans and lids equal to 145 cartons of 24 cans each were washed away, as were 5 000 bags of sugar; 250 000 cartons of canned fruit were damaged; 200 electrical motors and welding machines as well as the entire electrical switching installation of the factory had to repaired; and thousands of bulk containers and berry boxes were missing.
In Montagu itself, the town was cut off from Montagu West, the suspension bridge having succumbed to the floodwater. Within two days the Swellendam Commando had erected a temporary walking bridge across the Keisie River, but on the next Monday after the flood it was seriously damaged when the river came down in flood for a second time. Other roads were badly affected – the bridge near Drie Berge had disappeared, and in several sections of the road through the Keisie valley and beyond had been washed away.
This historic picture was the last taken of the footbridge which washed away 20 minutes later according to a document found in the Montagu museum
The bridge is no more
The Keisie river crossing to the Ou Dam
The aftermath
The town was without electricity and partly without drinking water for days. A temporary power generator was installed at the hospital, but for the rest Montagu resembled a ghost town at night. Everywhere people were having braais to utilise the meat in the freezers before it went off.
Hoe kom ’n mens by ’n ramp- dorp wanneer hy so ver as wat jou kennis strek, heelte- mal van die buitewêreld afgesny is?
Dit was die eerste gedagte toe ek eergisteroggend die poiisie op Worcester opgebel het en geen inligting kon kry of die pad van Touwsrivier na Montagu oop is nie. Hulle het wel geweet dat verskeie verspoelde brûe van Worcester tot op Montagu my sou voorkeer.
Dit was dus in die pad val tot op Touwsrivier waar die polisie sê probeer, maar op eie risiko. Sowat 50 km van Montagu het ’n verbrokkelde pad my voorgekeer. ’n Dam se wal het langs die pad gebreek, het ’n boervrou my hier vertel terwyl sy my verseker het dat ek in my ligte motor veilig anderkant sal kom. Maar verderaan het ’n brug verspoel, het sy bygevoeg. Ek het toe gaan kyk en die eerste werklike skade, buiten vir opgedamde water langs die pad, gesien. Dit het ook omdraai beteken, slegs oor die 30 km van Montagu. Ek is terug oor Ceres, oor Worcester, Viiliersdorp, Caledon, Swellendam, die Tradouwpas en toe Montagu, ’n Haelstorm langs die pad en ‘n groot swaar, donker wolk het my laat dink dat ek nooit daardie dag op die dorp sou kom nie.
Montagu was stil en taamlik onaangeraak so met die eerste oogopslag, want die middedorp is nie erg deur die water getref nie. Dit was egter by die Badhotel waar die skade groot is. Dat water soveel verwoesting kan saai. Van die hele kampeerterrein, van die rustige Badskloof en van die swembaddens het niks oorgeblv nie. Die hotel het duidelik vloedwater- merke teen die mure gehad. Die grondverdieping was toe onder modder, wingerdtakke en ander opdrifsels. Voor die stoep het ’n donga gegaap. Verder was daar net stukke van mure en modder op die res van die terrein.
Die brûe aan Ashton se kant van die dorp was weg. Die hangbrug na Montagu- Wes was weg Huise is oorstroom, waaronder die ou pastorie waarin wyle dr, D.F. Malan aan die begin van die eeu gebly het. Op die dorp was spoke van stories oor mense op huise se dakke, mense wat kort tevore op ’n weggespoelde brug gesien is en die Pietersfonteindam naby die Badshotel wat moontlik mag breek en die ramp vergroot. Dit is later deur die polisie ontken.
Eergisteraand het die dorp in ’n spookdorp verander. Geen ligte. Geen motors wat in die strate ry nie en geen mense op straat nie.
Ja, merk iemand op. Die ou mense het eintlik lekker gehad. Met geen televisie en ligte nie kon hulle saans vroeg-vroeg ingekruip het.
Lover’s Lane
Landmarks such as Lover’s Lane and Joubert House had been seriously damaged. Part of the former no longer existed and the well-known water furrow ended in mid-air. Joubert House, which was not yet a museum, had to be evacuated after one of the walls started to crumble due to ankle deep water that had rushed through the building. The historical “Tickey bath” at the Bath Hotel which was due to be declared a national monument, no longer existed.
Joubert House Long Street
The Worcester Standard correspondent reported the following
Radio ham was only link with outside world for 78 hours
MONTAGU. — By using a piece of wire for an antenna, the microphone from his wife’s tape recorder and a car battery, a radio ham, Mr. Chris Thornhill, sent and received emergency messages for 78 hours after the flood struck the town.
For many hours he was Montagu’s’Only means of communication \tith. the outside world.
The 58-year-old Mr. Thornhill manned ftis set from 09h36 on Monday to 16h00 on Friday.
In that time he sent and received messages on behalf of the police, hospital and municipality requesting emergency blood, food supplies, clean linen and equipment.
The first official statement of conditions drawn up by the mayor, Mr. Manie Wahl, was sent via Mr. Thornhill. He also received messages from as far as Windhoek requesting information about family and friends.
As the town was without electricity,’ Mr. Thornhill had to use his car battery to keep the radio going. He kept the car’s engine idling to charge the battery. The car used 20 litres of petrol!
On Wednesday he was able to borrow, through a fellow radio ham (ZS1HK), a portable generator from a Bonnievale farmer, Mr, Pieter Beukman. This was a great help because the Thornhills were able to run the deepfreeze from the generator.
Mr. Beukman needed his generator on Thursday, but Mr. Thornhill was able to get one from Mr. Leon Korkie in Worcester.
Mr. Thornhill transmitted to Hamnet, the amateur radio emergency communications network in the Western Cape. They, in turn, contacted Cape Town’s Civil Defence Command Centre and Military authorities at WP Command headquarters.
Because Mr. Thornhill’s knowledge of Afrikaans is rudimentary, he recorded the most important messages. He is planning to edit all the messages onto one cassette for sentimental reasons.
Mr. Thornhill, or ZSPTO as he is known to fellow radio hams, only received his set in January.
At one stage, a ham radio was Robertson’s only link with the outside world. It was manned by Mr. Louis Rosenzweig (ZS10E). He was the link between the Robertson and Worcester municipalities as well as Hamnet in; Cape Town.
His messages were received by Mr. J. Ben. Lubbe (ZSIGX) in Worcester. Mr. Lubbe was one of several radio hams who manned sets to aid towns crippled by the flood.
The chief of Civil Defence for Robertson and Montagu told the Worcester Standard that without radios he ”could have thrown the towel in. They were of tremendous assistance and I am grateful for their support”.
Conclusion
Never in human memory had the town of Montagu experienced such a disaster. But there was a good side – the many tales of bravery during the traumatic events, the rebuilding of the infrastructure in and around the town, and the vigour with which the task of repairing the damage was undertaken, bound the townspeople of Montagu together.
Source : February, March and April 2001 Montagu Mails (Montagu Archives)
Gallery
The Van der Merwe bridge to Barrydale can be seen in the background
Looking down Long Street Barrydale direction
Billy Loftus bridge at tunnel
Approaches to the Voortrekker Bridge Long Street
Voortrekker Bridge Long Street
The road between Montagu and Ashton
The Boy Retief bridge on the road to Ashton
The only link to the outside world
The low water bridge crossing at Eyssen Street
The De Waal bridge Kohler Street
Contributions: Irma Jordaan
All images unless otherwise stated were found in the Montagu museum archive unfortunately many of the pictures were cut outs and the original contributors could not be found.