A total of 253 people have died in catastrophic floods in South Africa caused by heavy rains on the east coast of the country, local authorities announced today according to a new report.
“Our morgues are under a lot of pressure, but we are coping. “Late last night at midnight we received 253 bodies in two separate morgues,” said Durban, the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal province, said in a televised interview Simanelan Zulu, a spokesman for the provincial health department.
South African President Cyril Ramafosa today pledged to help relatives of victims and those affected by the devastating floods, which caused problems and disruptions to maritime transport in one of Africa’s busiest ports.
There are piles of debris, twigs and plastic bottles on the popular beaches of Durban in the Indian Ocean. Residents of the area were asked to avoid any movement. Those living in higher altitude areas were encouraged to accept their neighbors living in lower areas, which have been affected by the floods. Heavy rains also caused power outages, and many roads were blocked.
Ramafosa visited families who lost loved ones in the province, including a family of four whose floods and mud landslides destroyed their homes on Tuesday.
The southeast coast of Africa is at the forefront of bad weather. Scientists believe that global warming is exacerbating these weather conditions – and predict that these weather phenomena will intensify in the coming decades.
South Africa’s northern neighbor, Mozambique, has been hit by a series of catastrophic floods over the past decade, including one last month that killed more than 50 people.
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in February warned that humanity was far from ready to tackle climate change.
“None of this is surprising, but it is absolutely devastating. You can imagine the cost in people’s lives. “Roads, ports … It’s huge,” Melissa Fourier, commissioner for the Presidential Climate Committee and head of the Center for Environmental Rights, told Reuters.
The army was mobilized to provide air support during the operation to evacuate residents from their homes.
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