South African President Cyril Ramaphosa lamented on Friday, April 15, “a catastrophe of enormous proportions, never seen before in the country”after the terrible floods that killed nearly 400 people and affected 41,000 others on the east coast of the country.
Most of the victims were recorded in the Durban region, a port city in Kwazulu-Natal open to the Indian Ocean and the epicenter of the heavy rains that began last weekend.
The government gave no indication of the total number of people wanted. But on the fifth day of the disaster, the rescuers have little hope of finding the living: “Currently our work consists mainly of recovering bodies”told Agence France-Presse a rescuer, Travis Trower.
New flood risks this weekend
The president, who traveled further north on Wednesday to Mpumalanga, where he spoke in a church on the occasion of the Easter holidays, confessed to having crossed “one of the saddest moments” of his tenure by meeting a family that lost ten members to the weather, including young children. In front of the congregation, he said:
“Some of them saw their family members carried away, without being able to rescue them, reaching out to hold them back but the power of the water carried them away. »
Forecasts point to more rain during the day and over the weekend, with further risks of flooding and landslides.
The bad weather is also expected to affect the neighboring provinces of the Free State (central) and the Eastern Cape, where “one death has already been reported”, Mr. Ramaphosa said. Recalling the unprecedented wave of violence that shook the country in July and the two-year fight against Covid-19, the South African president underlined:
“Our country faces enormous challenges. Just when we thought we could get out of the state of disaster, another disaster, natural this time, hit our country. »
Cyril Ramaphosa, who declared a state of disaster in Kwazulu-Natal province on Wednesday, announced earlier this month the lifting of all legal restrictions related to the Covid-19 epidemic, following the slowdown in the pace new infections.
Devastated roads and collapsed bridges
The torrential rains, which reached levels not seen for more than sixty years, seriously damaged the infrastructure. Roads were devastated, bridges collapsed. Over 250 schools were affected and thousands of homes were destroyed. The authorities fear hundreds of millions of euros in damages.
In the morning, volunteers armed with gloves and bin bags began cleaning Durban’s beaches, which are usually popular with families and tourists. “It’s my beach, the one where I take my children, where we spend our weekends”, says Morne Mustard, a 35-year-old computer scientist, among the volunteers at popular Umhlanga Beach. The restaurants on the beach offered them breakfast. He survived the flood, “absolute devastation, a horrible sight”he says, describing all kinds of rubbish and objects, brooms, utensils, carried by the waters towards the beach.
Around twenty emergency shelters were opened, with thousands of people left homeless. Some have been sleeping for several days on chairs or pieces of cardboard placed on the floor. In some areas, water and electricity have been cut since Monday. Desperate people were seen drawing water from burst pipes. Looting has also been reported.
The day before, sporadic demonstrations broke out demanding help. The City of Durban has called “to be patient”with relief operations being slowed down “due to the extent of the damage on the roads”. Local authorities have appealed for donations of food, water bottles and blankets.