The floods, which hit nearly 41,000 people, left traces of disaster and killed at least 395 people, said Sifo Chlomuka, regional head of the disaster management ministry. President Cyril Ramaphosa – recalling the Covid-19 pandemic and the deadly riots of July – described the floods as “a catastrophe of enormous proportions never seen in our country” and called for Good Friday prayers for survivors. “It simply came to our notice then [the Covid] disaster, we have another disaster, a natural disaster that falls in our country, especially in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. “Floods have caused a lot of damage and a lot of damage,” he said. With the government coordinating the search and rescue operation, the official number of missing people in KwaZulu-Natal is 55. A fleet of cars and helicopters carrying police experts set off early Friday to comb a valley in the Marianhill suburb west of Durban to search for 12 people missing in the floods, AFP correspondents said. It is an increasingly desperate search for survivors. Travis Truer, director of the volunteer organization Rescue South Africa, said his teams found only corpses after attending 85 calls on Thursday. Thousands of survivors, left homeless after the destruction of their homes, are housed in shelters scattered throughout the city, sleeping on cardboard sheets and mattresses on the floors. Housing Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said 13,593 houses had been damaged, of which nearly 4,000 had been completely destroyed. Meanwhile, volunteers, with gloves and garbage bags, rushed to the city beaches to collect the debris left by the huge storms. Software director Morne Mustard, 35, was among the many volunteers, including children, picking up debris and broken reeds from Durban’s famous Umhlanga Beach. “This is my local beach where I bring my kids and here we spend our weekend, so it’s for our community,” he said. He hired co-workers, family and friends to help with the cleanliness as the beach restaurants offered free breakfast to the volunteers. Recalling the day it rained, Mustard said: “It did not feel like a real, utter disaster, a horrible spectacle, things spilled on the beach must have come from someone’s house … brooms and mops, household utensils.” Some of Durban’s poorest residents have lined up to collect water from leaking pipes and dug layers of mud to reclaim their meager belongings. Ramaphosa declared the area in a state of disrepair to unlock aid funds. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika television, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said an initial installment of one billion rand ($ 68 million) in emergency funding was immediately available. Meteorologists said the revealing rain levels had been falling in the area for several days. Some areas received more than 450 millimeters (18 inches) in 48 hours, or almost half of Durban’s annual rainfall, the National Weather Service said. The Meteorological Agency of South Africa issued an Easter weekend warning for storms and floods in KwaZulu-Natal until Saturday night. More than 4,000 police officers have been deployed to assist in relief efforts and to maintain law and order amid reports of sporadic looting. The port of Durban, one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, resumed shipping activities on Thursday afternoon, after closing during the floods, according to state logistics company Transnet.
