Helicopter-backed rescue teams continue to retrieve corpses from the wreckage of the floods that hit South Africa four days ago. The official, still temporary, report of the victims speaks of 341 dead and about 41,000 injured.
“The phase of intensive rescue operations is largely complete. “Now our job is mainly to retrieve corpses,” Travis Trauer, who coordinates rescue teams, told AFP. Mr Trawer, who hails from the area, spoke of “the worst disaster in the last twenty years” in KwaZulu-Natal (east).
Most of the victims are in the Durban region, the largest African port in the Indian Ocean. It was the focus of heavy rains that began last weekend. A state of disaster has been declared in it.
“The total number of flood victims is 40,723” and “unfortunately, 341 deaths have been recorded,” Minister Sichle Zikalala told a news conference yesterday. He spoke of the destruction of human lives and infrastructure “unprecedented” in the most industrially developed country of the black continent.
Men and women drowned, children and babies were lost due to landslides. More than 100 bodies were found at night in the Phoenix morgue in the suburb of Durban.
“Stumbles,” said an employee who asked not to be named, describing scenes with children who went to identify and claim the bodies of their own. Funerals are prohibited until the ground has stabilized.
The rains, the heaviest that have hit the country for more than 60 years, destroyed bridges, flooded roads, cut off much of the area. More than 250 schools were damaged, thousands of homes destroyed. Authorities are talking about costs of hundreds of millions of euros.
The area had already suffered major damage in July due to riots and looting.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter that he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life” in South Africa.
Thousands of citizens were left homeless. About twenty reception centers were opened. Some sleep in chairs, on cardboard, or downstairs.
Many survivors felt completely alone. “There is no one here who can help us,” said a resident in front of a muddy house on the outskirts of Durban. Sporadic demonstrations by citizens seeking help were reported. The municipality appealed for “patience”, as rescue and relief operations slowed down “due to the extent of the damage to the roads”.
Some roads have reopened, thanks to the efforts of construction machinery crews, but most roads remain inaccessible, full of debris or flooded with dark muddy water. Authorities urged residents to avoid as much as possible any contact with possible “contaminated” water.
In many areas, water and electricity continue to be cut off from Monday. In the suburb of Amatioti (northern Durban), bunches of people were collecting drinking water from a broken pipe.
Local authorities have appealed for donations of long-lasting food, bottled water and anything that can keep the victims warm.
Looting was reported.
The meteorological service warns that new rains are expected and there is a risk of floods locally during the three days of Easter of the catholics. Rainfall is expected mainly in the neighboring counties of Free State (central) and Eastern Cape (southeast).
Some countries in southern Africa are often hit by deadly floods during cyclones (November-April). South Africa usually remains intact.
However in 2019, floods claimed the lives of 70 people and destroyed villages along the Indian Ocean. In 1995, 140 people died in floods and landslides.
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