HARARE – A Harare man is lucky to be alive after a tree uprooted and crushed his parked vehicle at Westgate Shopping Complex in Harare.
Source: Zimbabwe Mail
The heavy rains and strong wind that intermittently lashed the capital on Saturday afternoon brought trees crashing down at different locations.
Mr Samuel Mapfungautsi parked his vehicle, a Honda CRV in the car park at Westgate Shopping Complex and dashed to get some groceries in the supermarket.
He got the shock of his life when he came back to see a small crowd gathered around the car park and at closer inspection realised that one of the damaged cars was his- he had been victim of a tree fall!!
Though no casualties were reported, Saturday’s rain and wind storm caused trees to fall into power lines resulting in power outages in most western suburbs of Harare.
Along Lomagundi road, uprooted trees caused a serious traffic jam for some time.
Some truck drivers who had tried to make a u-turn to avoid the traffic jam ended up stuck in the mud.
The usually quiet stretch of road between Harare Street traffic lights and the Westgate roundabout was a hive of activity as drivers used other trucks to pull the stuck vehicles out of the mud.
Tree felling companies were also busy cutting and removing trees that had fallen along the highway.
Weather experts say there is a shift in the amount of rainfall that the region is receiving and various parts of the country have recorded high amounts of rainfall in the past two weeks with some receiving more than 158 mm in a day.