(MENAFN- The Post) BUSINESSES at Maseru Mall are still counting their losses after Monday's hailstorm damaged their equipment and stock.
The storm damaged the mall's roof and flooded several shops.
Some parts of the ceiling collapsed.
Although some shops reopened on Tuesday, some businesses say it might be days before they resume operations.
Some fear it could take months to recover from the damage to their stock and several days without business.
Most businesses are still waiting for assessment reports from their insurance companies but say they believe the damage is substantial.
Game, Jet, Mr Price, Ackerman's, Bacerlo's, Capello, Debonairs Pizza and Botho University were still closed yesterday.
So were Standard Lesotho Bank, Nedbank and Metropolitan.
Brighton Bata, Barcelo's manager, said each day the shop remains closed makes the recovery tougher. He said the shop is losing about M8000 for each day it is closed.
Malefetsane Lesala, the assistant manager of Ackerman's, said much of the damage has been on the stock.
“I see a lot of damage because even our new winter stock which is still packed has been affected,” Lesala said.
He said stock that was still in boxes was soaked in water.
“A few minutes after the rain stopped, we felt like we were outside because it was showering on us from the shop's roof”.
When thepost visited the mall on Tuesday some shops were clearing the debris and were not sure when they would reopen.
Kerisha Govender, the Marketing Executive for Mustardseed, the mall's marketing company, said they were still waiting for assessment reports to quantify the damage.
“The severe downpour in such a short period of time caused a build-up of water in the roof – especially when the hail began to liquefy,” Govender said.
“We did have initial reports of water penetrating electrical wiring but have received confirmation from our contractors that the electricity feeds are safe and secured.”
“This is really positive news as it means that we will be able to attend to it fairly quickly and Maseru Mall will be open to the community hopefully within the next couple of days.”
She said the mall's common areas are the mostly affected where the water seeped through the insulation and ceiling sheets.
Govender said the Lesotho Meteorological Services forecasted heavy rains and storms from February to March and April this year,“but we did not expect this severe and unprecedented hailstorm isolated in this specific area”.
“We have contractors working tirelessly to restore the affected areas.”
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