South Africa, hit by dramatic floods that killed nearly 400 people on the east coast, was hit on Saturday by new rains slowing relief efforts and raising the specter of new landslides.
A new report from the authorities reported 398 dead and 27 people missing. Most of the victims were recorded in the Durban region, a port city in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) open to the Indian Ocean, where heavy rains have been falling since last weekend.
After a brief respite, “the damage continues with the rain today making it worse in the affected areas,” Shawn Herbst, of the first aid company Netcare 911, told AFP. The army, special teams police and helicopters were deployed. Rescuers from other provinces also came to lend a hand.
“It has been raining since this morning in some parts of the region. And even if it will not be as violent as in the past few days, as the ground is already saturated with water, there is still a risk of a lot of flooding,” said explained to AFP the forecaster Puseletso Mofokeng, of the national institute of meteorology.
Rescue operations continue, but on the 6th day of the disaster, the hope of finding survivors is slim. “We have moved from the emergency phase to the recovery phase focused on humanitarian aid and the restoration of services,” first-aid worker Robert McKenzie told AFP.
Highly strained, particularly in the emergency services, at least 58 health establishments in the region were “seriously affected by the floods”, according to a press release from the provincial government, with damage to the roofs and floors of damaged buildings.
– “Our people are suffering” –
Severely damaged infrastructure as well as water and electricity cuts also prevent hospitals from functioning normally. Caregivers preferred to sleep on site to avoid the transport problem.
The authorities have promised the deployment of more tankers to distribute drinking water. In some areas, water and electricity have been cut since Monday. Desperate people draw water from the burst pipes. Others say that what little food they had left is now rotten.
The public transport operator is trying to restore the main lines of communication. Priority is given to the reconstruction of bridges whose collapse isolated certain parts of the agglomeration of more than 3.5 million inhabitants.
The port authority was able to open an alternative route for the transport of essential resources such as fuel and food.
Some 4,000 houses were razed, more than 13,500 damaged, putting thousands of people on the streets. Emergency accommodation has been opened but space is lacking. Some have been sleeping for several days on chairs or pieces of cardboard placed on the floor.
President Cyril Ramaphosa lamented a disaster “never seen before in the country”. The authorities expect hundreds of millions of euros in damages. The region had already experienced massive destruction in July during an unprecedented wave of riots and looting.
Emergency government aid of 63 million euros (one billion rand) has been released. South African billionaire and Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has donated 1.9 million euros (R30 million) because “our people are suffering”.
The distribution of food continues: bags of rice, pasta but also bottles of water and mattresses are given by whole trucks.
Rains also fell in the neighboring province of Eastern Cape (southeast). “The body of a six-year-old boy was found yesterday,” Corene Conradie, coordinator of local NGO Gift of the Givers, told AFP.
South Africa is generally spared the storms that affect neighboring countries such as Madagascar or Mozambique each year during the hurricane season which runs from November to April.
