JOHANNESBURG — Days of heavy rain on South Africa’s east coast killed at least 45 people as rivers overflowed and mudslides swept through Durban city and the surrounding area.
The death toll is expected to rise as members of the South African National Defense Force were called in to assist rescue teams in KwaZulu-Natal province, government officials said Tuesday. Along the coast, both vacation homes and cabins were swept away in an area of the country known as a refuge for its sun, beaches and warm temperatures.
“We were all surprised by the magnitude of this storm,” Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said in a news conference.
Storms have already wreaked havoc in several countries in the South African region this year, displacing thousands and killing dozens. Some scientists attributed the destruction in part to a storm season intensified by rising global temperatures.
The island of Madagascar has been the hardest hit, hit by a cyclone and four tropical storms that killed at least 178 people in February and March.
But the storms, which originated in the southern Indian Ocean, also hit the mainland. Thousands were displaced along Mozambique’s coastline, with flooding reaching as far inland as landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe. South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province also saw heavy rainfall and flooding in February.
On Tuesday, a new storm caused much of the city of Durban to be flooded. Footage from emergency services showed sections of a highway that resembled a river, with shipping containers dislodged and washed away. In Verulam, a township north of the city, two people were killed when a house collapsed overnight, according to local emergency services.
Residents sought refuge on higher ground and, according to rescuers, climbed the roofs of houses, office buildings and a Hindu temple.
In Tongaat, a town 40 minutes north of the city center, a woman driving home with children in a car was swept away Monday evening when a stream swelled into a gushing river that overflowed its banks, Bilall Jeewa of Gift of the Givers said. . a charity group. The bodies of the woman and two children were found, but the body of a third presumed dead child has yet to be recovered.
The floods also brought landslides that destroyed roads and homes in the region. The lower floors of seaside holiday apartments along the north coast were covered in reddish-brown mud, while houses on hills hung precariously after their foundations were washed away, according to a video on national television.
Slums built along rivers were among the most vulnerable, and shacks were washed away by flooding or covered in mud and rubble.
In a slum in Clare Estate, a suburb north of the city, residents dug in mud, metal and wood to try to save a family of five trapped in their cabin — but rescuers were too late, said Robert McKenzie, a spokesman for the city. KwaZulu-Natal emergency medical services.
Even as the water receded, rescuers struggled to reach the affected areas. By noon, dozens of schoolchildren and their teachers were trapped in their classrooms, waiting to be rescued, Kwazi Mshengu, head of the provincial education department, told eNCA, a national news channel. Nearly 100 schools were damaged and 500 schools in the region were closed, he said.
Large parts of the city were without electricity and water after power plants and water treatment plants were damaged, said Durban Mayor Kaunda. The city is still recovering from widespread rioting and looting last July, during one of the worst civil unrest to hit South Africa since the end of apartheid.
Rain is expected to continue to fall in the area on Tuesday and later into the week, according to the South African Weather Service.
The heavy rainfall is the result of a common weather phenomenon in South Africa known as a cut-off low, where a low-pressure system develops and the flow through the atmosphere is disrupted, resulting in a slow-moving storm.
“It’s very common for this time of year,” said Kgolofelo Mahlangu, a weather forecaster, noting that similar heavy rains hit the region around this time in 2017 and 2019.
Some climate scientists attribute the increase in the intensity of recent storms to environmental changes. A study published this week by World Weather Attribution, an initiative specializing in uncovering the links between climate change and individual weather events, said that “climate change increases risk in places where tropical cyclones have already affected agriculture, infrastructure, livelihoods and lives.” influence. “
The study looked at rainfall during Cyclone Batsirai and Tropical Storm Ana in January and February. While the study noted gaps in the data from the region, it found that human-induced global warming had played a role in intensifying those storms.
John Eligon contributed reporting from Ulundi, South Africa, and Raymond Zhong From New York.
