Following the initial warning by the South African Weather Services last week, various parts of Overstrand have since been flooded.

On Tuesday evening, 30 May 2023, the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) was set up after receiving a number of calls for assistance and the responsible services and disaster management teams were activated.

Homes were flooded and several roads closed as a safety precautionary measure. To date, Overstrand Municipality’s operational and protection services departments have issued ± 1 000 sandbags across the area and have assisted in diverting water by packing sandbags and bricks. Blankets were issued in such circumstances when all the bedding of affected residents were wet. In Hermanus area alone, 80 cubes of sand were distributed to affected areas.

Yesterday, Overstrand joined different parts of the world, to celebrate International Children’s Day.

World Children’s Day is observed annually on 1 June, as an initiative for children's well-being and rights and coincides with the Child Protection Week campaign currently underway in South Africa.

Overstrand Municipality joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2019 to encourage international co-operation between cities that invest in culture and creativity.

As part of this network, Overstrand Tourism initiated several painting activations for International Children’s Day. These will be held at the Mount Pleasant and Hermanus Libraries, at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary in Kleinbaai (APSS), The Hub in Masakhane in Gansbaai and in Pringle Bay.

The following notice has been issued by the Department of Transport and Public Works on 31 May 2023 regarding the road closures of the R44 Clarence Drive until further notice.

The Western Cape Department of Infrastructure can confirm that the R44 Clarence Drive is currently closed due to rockfalls.

There are still regular, rock falls due to intermittent rain. More rain has been forecasted for this weekend.

We are consistently monitoring and cleaning the road.

There is a high probability that the road will only be opened after the weekend.

We will open the road as soon as it is safe to do so.

Overstrand Tourism returned from the annual Africa’s Travel Indaba and continued with an intense level of engagement on several projects.  While CapeNature Stony Point Penguin Colony’s boardwalk has been closed for repair work till the end of June 2023 there has been increased attention given towards the plight of the endangered African penguin with a new four-year WWF Kleinmond project to Save the African Penguin.  This project will be rolled out with stakeholder engagement sessions and there has already been an advertisement published recruiting two environmental monitors.