The death toll from South Africa’s “unprecedented” floods climbed to 341 on Thursday as helicopters fanned out across the southeastern city of Durban in an increasingly desperate search for survivors.
With roads and bridges washed away by flooding this week, rescuers battled to deliver supplies across the city, where some residents have been without power or water since Monday.
“The level of devastation of human life, infrastructure, and service delivery network in the province is unprecedented,” KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala said. “A total number of 40,723 people have been affected. Sadly, 341 fatalities have been recorded,” he told a news conference in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province’s capital.
Photo: Reuters
At a small airport north of Durban, helicopters carried rescuers in and out. The air support was pulled from military and police, but also a fleet of volunteers, private contractors and schools.
However, one day after the rains subsided, fewer survivors were being found, said Travis Trower, a director for the volunteer-run organization Rescue South Africa.
From 85 calls on Thursday, he said his teams had found only corpses.
“It’s unfortunate, but we do the best we can for as many people as we can,” he said.
The South African government has given no indication of how many people are missing.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared the region a state of disaster to unlock relief funds.
Authorities said they had established 17 shelters to accommodate more than 2,100 displaced people.
Entering their fourth day without power or water, Durban’s poorest residents on Thursday lined up to collect water from burst pipes and dug through layers of mud to retrieve their few possessions.
There was a sense of despair amid the stench of sewage, growing stronger as the rains which wrought so much devastation stopped and the tropical heat returned.
Sporadic protests erupted in some areas over slow restoration of services and a lack of relief.
The Durban City Government appealed for patience.
“We understand the frustration and anxiety of our residents,” it said in a statement. “We are working as quickly as we can. Our teams are hard at work to resume services. However, it may take a while to fully restore all services because of the extent of the damage to access roads.”
Many survivors said they had been left to fend for themselves.
In Amaoti, a township north of Durban, residents balanced precariously on the embankment of a collapsed road, trying to fetch clean water from a broken pipe underneath.
“We don’t have water, there is no electricity... people from [everywhere] are coming to get water,” Amaoti resident Thabani Mgoni, 38, told reporters in the midst of the crowd.
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