Heavy rains that devastated part of the east coast of South Africa this week have already left at least 259 dead, according to figures as of early afternoon on Wednesday (13).
These were the heaviest rains in more than 60 years in the country, leaving landscapes destroyed, with bridges collapsing, landslides and submerged roads around the port city of Durban, the epicenter of the catastrophe, in Kwazulu-Natal province.
Dozens of people are missing, and rescuers speak of a “nightmare” scenario. “Our morgues are under pressure,” said Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, a representative of the provincial health department.
The national police sent an additional 300 officers to the region, while the Air Force sent planes to help with rescue operations. Waterspouts flooded the streets, where only the tops of traffic lights were visible. The torrents also destroyed a number of bridges, cars and houses. More than 2,000 houses and 4,000 informal dwellings such as shacks were damaged.
The rains forced the port, the most important in sub-Saharan Africa, to stop its operations, as the main access road suffered serious damage. Containers were dragged and formed mountains of metal and scrap. In addition, a tanker truck was spotted floating in the sea after being dragged off the road. Landslides also forced the suspension of rail services across the province.
The provincial government said the catastrophe “caused untold chaos and caused great damage to lives and infrastructure”.
The United Methodist Church in Clermont County was reduced to rubble. Four children from a family in the neighborhood were killed when a wall collapsed on them. Other houses hung precariously from the slope.
“We see how these tragedies affect other countries, like Mozambique or Zimbabwe, but now we are the ones affected,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who found families near the ruins of the church.
In Mozambique, north of South Africa, a flood last month left more than 50 dead. The southeastern coast of Africa is at the forefront of maritime climate systems that have caused natural disasters in the region. South Africa’s neighboring countries experience tropical storms almost every year, but South Africans, in general, face fewer such problems.
In April 2019, however, floods left around 70 people dead in South Africa.
“We know climate change is getting worse, we went from extreme storms in 2017 to what should have been record floods in 2019, but 2022 clearly surpasses that,” said Mary Galvin, a professor of developmental studies at the University of Johannesburg.
Parts of the state of KwaZulu-Natal received 450 millimeters of rain in 48 hours, according to the weather service, nearly half of the 1,000 millimeters of rain forecast for the whole year in Durban. On Wednesday, it still rains in parts of the province, but the forecast is that the weather will improve.
Schools in areas not affected by the floods reopened on Wednesday, but with fewer students in class. A teacher at an elementary school in the Durban suburb of Inanda said only two of the 48 students attended classes.
Durban is the same city where mass protests and riots in July 2021 left more than 350 dead.
