Over 300 dead in severe South Africa flooding
Johannesburg, Apr 14 (EFE).- At least 306 people have died as a result of a devastating flood in South Africa’s coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal, with the number expected to rise as emergency services continued to search for more missing people on Thursday.
The government declared the province a disaster area on Wednesday after heavy rains caused one of the worst floods in recent history.
“It is one of the darkest moments in history,” the head of the KwaZulu-Natal regional government, Sihle Zikalala, said.
Many households across the province remain without power and running water while thousands of people have been displaced and have remained homeless, according to local authorities.
The shanty towns around Durban, the third-largest city in South Africa, have been particularly hard-hit, with many informal houses completely washed away by torrential rains and landslides.
The damage has been estimated to have cost the province, home to Durban, 757 million Rand (about 50 million euros), according to the city’s mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda.
The province has been experiencing extreme weather events in recent years.
In 2019, some 80 people died after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the same area. EFE
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