Officials: 341 killed in South African floods

In an update to the deadly floods that hit the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal earlier this week, Premier Sihle Zikalala reported “a total number of 40,723 people have been affected and sadly 341 fatalities have been reported.” The video above includes scenes from the devastation left behind. Zikalala’s update comes a day after the head of South Africa’s National Disaster Management Center classified the floods as “a provincial disaster.”

“We can confirm that the magnitude of the damage, which is still being quantified, will definitely run into billions of rand,” Zikalala said, calling the floods an “unprecedented disaster in the history of our province and perhaps our country.” The rand is South Africa’s form of currency.

The floods began as a result of heavy rain that fell over the weekend and continued on Monday. All that rain flooded homes, washed away roads and bridges, and disrupted shipping in one of Africa’s busiest ports.

“I hear a noise like a thunderstorm, thereafter I hear the sound of the walls falling onto me and my child. After that, I tried to call my neighbors to assist me,” flood victim Meli Sokela said. “My neighbors, they tried to assist me, it took two hours. After two hours I survived but unfortunately, my child did not survive.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa toured areas affected by the floods Wednesday. On Thursday, residents in some areas scrambled to get clean water from broken pipes and water tanks after municipal services, including electricity, were impacted.

“We don’t have water, we don’t have electricity. It has been tough,” flood victim Thabisile Mathumbu said. She added communities were not given advance warning of heavy rains, saying “we should have been warned.” Fellow flood victim Kylie Shawd expressed a similar sentiment Tuesday.

“We’re cleaning up the road after the severe rain from last night, washing down the mud and the banks of people’s houses,” Shawd said. “We’ve been trying to get people to come and sort it out, no one has come so it’s the residents who are now taking charge.”