Death toll up to 6 in Durban after heavy rains

The death toll from heavy rain which lashed KwaZulu-Natal from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, leading to flooded roads and evacuations, has risen to six.

Disaster management teams recovered the bodies of two women, aged 56 and 60, and three children, aged five, 11 and 16, who were washed away into a canal in Lamontville, south of Durban. A sixth person from Chatsworth also died.

The heavy rainfall in KwaZulu-Natal was caused by thunderstorms which are “very common” at this time of year, a weather expert said on Wednesday.

University of Pretoria associate professor in meteorology Liesl Dyson told TimesLIVE in addition to the thunderstorms, a surface high-pressure system fed moist air into the province.

“Due to the unique topography of the escarpments in KwaZulu-Natal, the on-shore flow is forced to rise, resulting in even more rainfall,” she said.

Dyson said light rain and drizzle would continue but would clear by Wednesday night.

“By tomorrow afternoon [Thursday], there is again a chance of thunderstorms. As surface conditions tomorrow will be quite different it’s unlikely the rainfall will be as heavy. During the rest of summer and into autumn, there is an enhanced chance of above normal rainfall over the northern parts of the province.

“There are two tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean at the moment. Honde is in the Mozambique Channel, but the prediction is it will move south-eastwards and away from KwaZulu-Natal. At the moment we do not expect it to influence Southern Africa weather,” she said.

The provincial department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs said the rain resulted in widespread destruction, particularly in coastal regions.

Emergency services teams worked throughout the night searching for the missing people who were washed away in the floods.

They were later discovered and confirmed dead.

eThekwini municipality said the flooding also affected the outskirts of the metro, where incidents of localised flooding, overflow of low water bridges, collapse of structures, mudslides, and fallen trees were reported.

About 280 families in Lamontville were affected and will be relocated to temporary shelters while mop-up operations continue.

“Several beaches have been affected by the severe flooding and are temporarily closed until further notice. The flooding, which resulted in damage to infrastructure, muddy water and a large amount of debris spilling into the sea has led to the temporary closure of some eThekwini beaches.”

The city said several areas reported power outages.

The most impacted areas include Phoenix Industrial, Engonyameni, Southridge, uMlazi, Folweni, Isipingo, Bayview, Warner Beach, Ohlange and Umzinyathi.

The city said teams have been dispatched to assess and address the outages.

TimesLIVE