(Durban) South Africa’s worst flooding on record has claimed more than 300 lives, according to a new report on Wednesday evening, as heavy rains on the east coast devastated thousands of homes, roads and bridges in Durban, a major African port and epicenter of the disaster.
Posted at 3:08 p.m.
Updated at 3:43 p.m.
“The death toll from the floods in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN, east) stands at 306,” a spokesman for the disaster management office told AFP. A previous report put the death toll at 259.
The heaviest rainfall recorded in more than 60 years in the region has left behind a desolate landscape.
“The bridges have collapsed. The roads have collapsed. People died. Our people are hurt. It is a disaster of enormous proportions,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa who visited the bereaved families.
In a poor suburb of Durban, the head of state listened to a father tell of the water rising in the middle of the night, the electricity cut, his four children asleep in another room and that he had no could not save.
Some southern African countries are regularly plagued by deadly storms during the hurricane season from November to April. But South Africa is generally spared.
In some places in the conurbation, which has more than 3.5 million inhabitants, landslides have left giant breaches in the ground. Houses clinging to the side of the hill miraculously hold onto the edge of precipices created by the mudslides.
” A nightmare ”
Local authorities said they were dealing with an influx of bodies into morgues. The research has been carried out for several days by rescuers who describe “a nightmare”; dozens of people are still missing. The army has been mobilized.
Rain continued to fall on Wednesday afternoon and a flood alert was issued in neighboring Eastern Cape province.
In 2019, floods in the region had already claimed 70 lives and devastated several villages along the Indian Ocean. And in 1995, 140 people were killed in bad weather, according to data compiled by AFP.
Township resident Nokuthula Ntantiso still has a roof over her head, but she wonders for how long.
“Last night, I didn’t sleep a wink thinking that the house could collapse at any moment,” says this call center employee. The next morning, the 31-year-old went to work, but had to turn back, a bridge had collapsed.
The main roads are submerged in a brownish molasses. Signs and traffic lights protrude from a thick layer of mud that only bulldozers have been able to begin to clear.
Here, a stretch of road was washed out, leaving a gash as wide as a tractor-trailer. There, huge metal containers were tossed on the highway. Looting has been reported.
On the popular beaches of Durban, mountains of branches, bottles and rubbish were washed away. Port activity has been suspended.
Close to a cyclone
Most classrooms remained empty. At least 140 schools have been affected, according to local authorities.
The heavy rains also led to power cuts and disrupted water supplies. Rail links have been suspended and residents urged to stay at home.
“In 48 hours, more than 450 mm of water fell in some areas,” Dipuo Tawana, forecaster at the national meteorological institute, told AFP. Specialists compared the level of precipitation to that “normally associated with cyclones”.
Forecasts warned of persistent rain and the risk of localized flooding in the coming days. The region has already seen massive destruction in July during an unprecedented wave of rioting and looting.
During the day, for a moment of respite, the inhabitants however began to clear. This destruction is undeniably linked to “worsening climate change” with extreme phenomena likely to recur, warned Mary Galvin, professor of development studies at the University of Johannesburg.