A heavy downpour accompanied by hailstorms and strong winds tore through several suburbs in Bulawayo on Thursday afternoon, damaging homes, uprooting trees and leaving some families without shelter.
The worst-hit area was Cowdray Park, where roofs were blown off houses, walls collapsed, windows were smashed and floodwaters poured into homes.
Some residents said they were forced to spend the night in roofless houses, with no means to find alternative accommodation.
A CITE news crew visited parts of Cowdray Park, as well as Queensdale and Kingsdale, where several trees struck by lightning had fallen across roads, blocking traffic.
Sibongile Khanye, a Cowdray Park resident, said she was attending a funeral in Matopos when she received a call from her daughter.
“I was told that our roof had been blown away and the house was flooded,” she said.
Khanye said this was the second time her home had been destroyed by heavy rains.
“The first time was during the 2022 rainy season when all the asbestos sheets on my seven-roomed house were blown away and broken. We then bought metal sheets, but the same has happened again. When these sheets were blown off, they hit my neighbour’s windows and shattered them,” she said.
She said neighbours helped scoop water out of the house, but most household property had been damaged.
Another resident, Christina Siyafanana, said she and her family slept in a roofless house on Thursday night.
“We just slept like this without anything to cover our house. We were hoping there would be no rain during the night. I am really devastated and I don’t know how I’m going to fix this situation,” she said.
The Bulawayo Fire Brigade visited some of the affected homes to help salvage property and assess damage.
Ward 6 councillor Nkosilathi Hove-Mpofu said poor drainage systems in Cowdray Park were worsening the impact of heavy rains.
“It is worrying that residents face this challenge almost every year. We have poor drainage systems which trap water when there are heavy rains,” he said.
“While some houses had roofs blown away, a larger number of cases involve homes that were flooded. People have lost property and it is a very sorry sight.”
He appealed for assistance from the public and stakeholders.
“These families need food, clothing and building materials to repair their houses,” Hove-Mpofu said.
He added that government officials had already visited the area and provided mealie-meal, but more support was still required as food supplies in many homes had been destroyed by floodwaters.
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