Devastating floods in S Africa leave 259 dead, many missing
Devastating floods left 259 dead in the South African city of Durban, the provincial health chief said on Wednesday, after hillsides washed away, homes collapsed, and more people were still feared missing.
The heaviest rains in 60 years pummelled Durban’s municipality, known as ethekwini. According to an AFP tally, the storm is the deadliest on record in South Africa.
“At the moment the confirmed figures of people that have perished during this disaster is 259, across the Kwazulunatal (KZN) province,” Nonala Ndlovu, spokeswoman for the provincial disaster management department told AFP.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the floods as a “catastrophe” and a “calamity”.
“Bridges have collapsed. Roads have collapsed. People have died... this is a catastrophe of enormous proportions,” he said, addressing a local community after inspecting the damage from the floods that have claimed 259 lives.
The search for missing persons is still going on, said Ramaphosa, promising to “spare nothing” in dealing with the disaster. “This disaster is part of climate change. We no longer can postpone what we need to do... to deal with climate change. It is here, and our disaster management capability needs to be at a higher level.”
Earlier the provincial health chief Nomagugu Simelane-zulu had expressed their “biggest worry” about the huge toll telling ENCA television that “mortuaries are under a bit of pressure, however we are coping”.
The United Methodist Church in the township of Clermont was reduced to a pile of rubble. Four children from a local family died when a wall collapsed on them.
Other homes hung precariously to the hillside, miraculously still intact after much of the ground underneath them washed away in mudslides.