HOUSE COLLAPSES ON ELDERLY COUPLE AFTER STRONG WINDS

TIMBUTINI – Houses collapsed, corrugated iron sheets were strewn all over while trees and electric poles were uprooted. 

It rained for less than an hour but this is the damage that the downpour caused yesterday afternoon in the close-knit community of Timbutini outside Manzini. 
An elderly couple had to be rushed to hospital after their two-roomed house gave in to the strong winds and heavy shower that hit the semi-rural area characterised by goat farming.

The couple’s 13-year old grandson managed to escape before the house collapsed after reportedly realising what was about to happen.
Joyce Sarah Ntsini (61) said she was relaxing in bed with her partner Phineas Mhlongo when disaster struck.
In obvious pain and sitting beside her partner who was also writhing in agony, Ntsini said when they saw the walls giving in, it was already too late for them to make an escape.

rescued

“Our grandson managed to get out quickly but we couldn’t. The mud bricks fell on top of us and we couldn’t move. We were rescued by neighbours who heard us screaming and shouting for help,” she related.

The residents reportedly managed to remove the rubble and got the couple out before placing them on a mattress they had also taken out of the debris.
Mhlongo was the one who suffered most injuries as he had wounds on his face and forehead and could not move by himself.

Police were called and they arrived at the scene as quickly as they could and were soon followed by the emergency preparedness response unit, also known as 977.
The elderly man had to be taken into the police van on a blanket while his partner managed to walk with the assistance of neighbours.
Before they were taken to hospital, Ntsini was heard persistently asking that she be given a phone so she could contact her relatives to inform them of what had happened, something that she was afforded.

transferred

The police rushed the couple to hospital but were met by the 977 vehicle where the two were then transferred.
Besides the couple’s home, a number of other homesteads in the area felt the wrath of the uncompromising strong winds and downpour.
One such homestead belongs to a Gama family where two houses were also damaged; one having its entire roof blown off, part of its walls collapsing and electric cables ripped off the walls.

Somiso Gama said they were lucky that there was no one was in the house, otherwise someone could have been seriously injured.
“We were in the other house, which also had its roof partly blown off,” he said.

He said they had not experienced such damage in recent years and were still wondering what could have caused such violent winds and rain.
Another homestead that was not spared belongs to Samuel Nhleko – a farmer, who was found at pains at the damage he suffered through countless chickens that were killed as a result.

“I earn a living through farming and the chickens are part of the animals that I rear and sell but look at what the rains have done,” he said.
Also, a pigsty had its roof blown off and the iron sheets were seen scattered all over.

“Some of the pigs were so scared they jumped into other sections of the pigsty they are not supposed to go into. I don’t know how I will take them back to their sections and how they will be able to spend the night in the open,” he said.

A couple of trees in the homestead were also uprooted.

suffered

“I will have to fix the damage with my wife as soon as she is done helping our neighbours who have suffered more than us,” Nhleko said.
He added: “I have not seen such damage in this area in a long time. The only other time it happened was years ago when a dark cloud covered this whole area before strong winds blew off rooftops and some homesteads were literally blown away.”

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