On Sunday 1st September 1968, a ferocious storm hit Port Elizabeth when more than 40cms of rain fell in just four hours, wreaking havoc, damaging some of the city’s most prominent buildings and infrastructure and killing nine people.

Harrowing accounts of what people endured over four hours on the Sunday morning, 1^st September 1968 are recounted, as they should be, every Spring Day on radio and in the local newspapers. Needless to say, they are tragic and terrifying.  To put this flood into perspective, this flood will be interrogated not from a human drama viewpoint but rather from the perspective of rainfall, isohyet charts and comparisons with subsequent floods

Main picture: Flooding in the Baakens Valley

Surprisingly roller skating was introduced to Port Elizabeth in 1878, the first venue of this novel pastime in South Africa. Popular for a while, it then faded into obscurity before making a resurgence and briefly blooming once again.

This is the story of that roller coaster ride.

Main picture: Roller skating at the Humewood Beach Hotel

At the risk of stating the obvious, most residents of Port Elizabeth regard Uitenhage as a dirty unpleasant industrial town, the like of which one never needs to visit unless it is on official company business.  Yet 200 years ago, when the hamlet of Port Elizabeth was established, Uitenhage was the district administration centre with Port Elizabeth forming part of Uitenhage. Today the converse is true. In short order, Port Elizabeth surpassed Uitenhage and is now the driving force in the region.

In Port Elizabeth’s hubris, it should never dismiss Uitenhage out of hand but should rather acknowledge it as having an equally interesting history and that it now boasts the largest industrial plant in the Eastern Cape in the form of VW.

Main picture: Trekboers in the Karroo