Floods on South Africa’s east coast have killed at least 259 people this week. That is what representatives of the regional authorities told news agencies AFP and Reuters on Wednesday. The worst affected area in Durban and the surrounding area is said to have seen a record amount of precipitation in recent days. The consequences are far-reaching: dozens of people are still missing, bridges and roads have been destroyed and thousands of homes are in ruins.
In 48 hours, more than 450 millimeters of rain fell locally, a spokesman for the national weather institute told AFP. That is roughly half the amount of precipitation that the Netherlands has to process on average in an entire year. Rivers have burst their banks and roads are flooded. Shipping traffic to and from the port of Durban, one of the busiest in Africa, has come to a standstill. Landslides have created huge holes in the road surface, local electricity has been cut and in some places people have no access to clean drinking water.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the affected region on Wednesday and spoke of “a huge disaster”. He believed that such storms “only affect other countries like Mozambique,” but was instead faced with “one of the biggest incidents we’ve ever seen.”
According to scientists, the southeastern coast of Africa is vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of its location. South Africa’s northern neighbour, Mozambique, has been hit by deadly floods on several occasions in the past decade. Last month, more than 50 people were killed in the storm.