Severe thunderstorms have triggered destructive flooding in New Hanover, KwaZulu-Natal, leaving families displaced and emergency teams scrambling to locate missing residents.
The heavy rainfall follows warnings from the South African Weather Service (SAWS), which issued Level 5 and Level 4 alerts for large parts of the province ahead of the storm.
Authorities have confirmed that one person has died, while two others remain missing after being swept away by fast-moving floodwaters in the KZN Midlands.
KZN Transport and Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma confirmed that the recovered body was found trapped under a tree.
“There is one body that has been recovered under the tree. And unfortunately, this remains a sensitive matter whenever these processes are taking place, we just have to treat it. Just imagine a member of a family, we have just discovered the area. The police must safeguard the place. At least SAPS is here but we are still waiting for the proper rescue team because there are other private guys that were assisting at this point. But we will be here at the scene to ensure almost all of them are discovered.”
KZN Premier Thami Ntuli says some of the structures washed away in the floods were built too close to the riverbank. He stressed the urgency of heeding weather alerts and relocating from high-risk areas:
“We are sending condolences that are affected to the people of KwaZulu-Natal at large. And we are urging that our citizens must really respond to the alerts and even to our call because we have been on record saying there is a need to relocate some building which are in dangerous areas, flooding areas in the banks of the rivers.
"And hence if that had to be a call to be responded to quite urgently, maybe we might be speaking a different language. Not to say we have lost lives but I could say our teams led by the department of COGTA are on the ground to work with other sectors to search for other bodies and to try and remove the body that has been discovered and to also ensure that people are safe in that area. It is unfortunate that a number of properties were affected by the flooding.
"And we are hopeful to receive the report before the end of today to the qualification to extent of the damage that actually took place.”
anita.nkonki@inl.co.za
Saturday Star