storm
South Africa’s coastal provinces are sinking under water
People stand in front of a bridge that has been swept away in Durban after unusually heavy rainfall. Photo: Uncredited/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
South Africa’s coastal regions braced themselves for the Easter rush of domestic and foreign tourists. But then came the chaos. Whole regions are under water after heavy rain.
Flooded roads, collapsed houses and bridges, mudslides, torrents of water: unusually heavy rainfall has caused chaos, devastation and deaths in South Africa’s coastal region.
“We were all surprised by the intensity of this storm,” said the mayor of the Ethikwini region around the port city of Durban, Mxolisi Kaunda, on Tuesday. “There is a lot of damage, the floods are everywhere.” The city has opened community centers as emergency shelters for flood victims. The priority now is to save human life.
“It’s pure chaos all around here,” reports Chris Schädle, the German owner of the “Siggi’s” restaurant in Salt Rock. The small South African coastal town is located on the Indian Ocean, not far from the port city of Durban, which is twinned with Bremen. Schädle’s staff had to spend the night in the restaurant on Tuesday night because a bridge that had been washed away blocked a connecting road.
200 milliliters of rain in 24 hours
Around 200 millimeters of precipitation fell over the region within 24 hours, reported André de Ruyter from the electricity company Eskom on Tuesday. The situation was made more difficult by power failures, landslides, but also an outdated infrastructure that could no longer absorb the enormous amounts of water.
According to de Ruyter, the power outages can only be remedied when the continuous rain stops. “Since the flooding is still ongoing, we are doing an initial inventory of the damage.” Although these are still largely unclear, the country’s media assumed at least 20 deaths. Property damage in the millions is also feared. The military has been placed on alert to assist with emergency relief. Help was also requested from other provinces.
According to official information on Tuesday morning, there were numerous landslides and many important connecting roads are under water. On social media, residents showed videos of torrents of water in houses and settlements as well as pictures of stuck trucks or cars that were swept away by the water masses.
The population was asked to stay in their homes in view of the persistent rainfall, but to leave lower-lying regions. Floods had already occurred at the beginning of the year. “But as violent as now – that has never happened here before,” said Schädle.
More rain expected
The country at the southern tip of Africa is currently in the grip of an extreme weather situation that brings with it a disproportionate amount of humidity in a very short time. More precipitation was announced for the second half of the week.
The province of KwaZulu-Natal is located on the Indian Ocean and borders Lower Saxony’s partner province, the Eastern Cape Province. Several German automotive companies and suppliers are also based there.
In the affected coastal towns, where many South Africans and foreigners have holiday homes, rushing fountains of water shot out of lower-lying apartments over balconies on Tuesday. The coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal is one of the country’s top holiday destinations, already bracing for the traditional Easter rush of domestic and foreign tourists.
The so-called Springbok Germans also live there – South Africans of German descent who also settled in what is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the mid-19th century. The Hamburg ship broker and German consul Malte Kersten estimates the number of these South Africans in places like Braunschweig, Augsburg, New Germany or New Hanover to be around 15,000.
Inland, Hermannsburg was once founded by missionaries from the town of the same name in the Lüneburg Heath. Today it is the seat of a school and a museum. According to Kersten, there are 5,000 Germans living in the provinces in addition to the Springbok Germans.