Laingsburg is a small Karoo town 250 km inland from Cape Town. The Buffels River flows along the western side of the town, with ‘flow’ being a rather abstract term most of the time. In 1981, this river flooded with catastrophic results and the suddenness with which the small town was annihilated by flood waters still resonates today. The risk of severe flooding remains an ever-present threat to Laingsburg, and while it seems that although the disaster is not specifically mentioned in formal municipal planning documents in the post-1994 era, it has not been forgotten by the townsfolk as attested by YouTube videos at the 30 year (2011) and 40 year (2021) anniversaries of the disaster.
The Buffels River catchment
The Buffels River catchment includes the Buffels, Wilgenhout and Baviaans rivers, and lies in the rain shadow of the Langeberg, Swartberg and Witteberg Mountains. This means that the catchment is dry for years on end, although since the 1700s, it has been noted for its periodic flood events. On occasion, when a High Pressure System occurs off shore, massive amounts of moist air from the coast can be forced over the mountains and cause excessive rain on the other side in the Buffels River catchment (Hoorn 2021). When this happens, the three rivers in the catchment become roaring monsters that converge at the outskirts of Laingsburg. On the 25th January 1981, such an event occurred. The co-joined Buffels River burst its banks because of unprecedented rainfall in the catchment area and...
