{"id":881647,"date":"2026-10-27T15:51:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881647"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:51:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:51:42","slug":"severe-weather-warning-escalated-to-level-4-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/881647\/severe-weather-warning-escalated-to-level-4-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather warning escalated to level 4 in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has escalated the severe weather warning issued for KwaZulu-Natal to level 4, while a level 2 warning remains in place for multiple other provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The weather service warned of flooding, damage to property and infrastructure and danger to life in KZN as severe thunderstorms hit the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The eThekwini Municipality&#8217;s Disaster Management and Emergency Services teams have also been placed on standby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The warning is valid for Tuesday, 27 October, carrying into Wednesday, the city said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Heavy downpours, hail, and severe lightning are expected, which may cause flooding in settlements, roads, and bridges, damage to property and infrastructure, and poor driving conditions,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Director of the eThekwini Disaster Management Directorate, Vincent Ngubane, urged residents to take the warning seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is especially for those in low-lying areas and informal settlements. He said residents should avoid unnecessary travel and never attempt to cross flooded rivers or roads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents are advised to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stay indoors and off the roads where possible;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Never cross rivers, streams or roads where water is above ankle height;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abandon your vehicle and move to higher ground if trapped during a flood;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Move valuables above the expected flood level;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep children away from rivers and stormwater drains; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid open spaces and tall trees during lightning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The level 4 escalation followed a level 2 warning issued on Sunday for Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of the level 4 alert for KZN, the SAWS issued a level 2 alert for the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the lower reaches of Limpopo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The level 2 warnings relate to localised flooding of roads, bridges, settlements and low-lying bridges due to heavy rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inclement weather may also lead to localised disruptions to power supply and communications, localised traffic disruption, and disruption to municipal services due to lightning activity, the SAWS said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Weather Service has escalated the severe weather warning issued for KwaZulu-Natal to level 4, while a level 2 warning remains in place for multiple other provinces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2115080336417697879","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2251035669050165","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18106784675373668","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[16914,22941],"class_list":["post-881647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-saws","tag-severe-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881658,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881647\/revisions\/881658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}