It’s third time unlucky for the Thompson family …

Awie Thompson’s house in Mariental was flooded twice in 2000 and again on Saturday.He was also in Mariental in 1972 when the town suffered severe flooding, but he says he was very young then and cannot recall the event clearly.

The floods of 2000, however, he can recall clearly. So when the rain started on Friday night he and his family spent the whole night stacking furniture and appliances as high as possible in an attempt to keep them dry.They built wood scaffolds on top which they stacked their sofas and other belongings.All this work turned out to have been in vain, however, when the flood came on Saturday morning at about 08h00.”It was too much too quick,” Thompson said.”We had wasted our whole night trying to save our belongings.All in vain.”When he returned to the house for a final walk-through, all the furniture was floating on the floodwaters, which were much higher than anticipated.Thompson said 104 millimetres of rain had fallen overnight.”The people monitored the Hardap Dam very well and unlike in 2000.They did an excellent job.The amount of rain that fell on Friday night was very unexpected and caught us off guard.We did not expect so much water.”So when the rain started on Friday night he and his family spent the whole night stacking furniture and appliances as high as possible in an attempt to keep them dry.They built wood scaffolds on top which they stacked their sofas and other belongings.All this work turned out to have been in vain, however, when the flood came on Saturday morning at about 08h00.”It was too much too quick,” Thompson said.”We had wasted our whole night trying to save our belongings.All in vain.”When he returned to the house for a final walk-through, all the furniture was floating on the floodwaters, which were much higher than anticipated.Thompson said 104 millimetres of rain had fallen overnight.”The people monitored the Hardap Dam very well and unlike in 2000.They did an excellent job.The amount of rain that fell on Friday night was very unexpected and caught us off guard.We did not expect so much water.”