At least 57 people have been confirmed dead as floods devastate one of South Africa’s poorest provinces. Officials said the toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered in the search for missing people. The floods hit the largely rural Eastern Cape province in the southeast of the country early Tuesday after a powerful weather front brought heavy rains, gale-force winds, and also snow in some parts.
“As we speak here, other bodies are being discovered,” Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane told reporters at a briefing, adding that it was one of the worst weather-related disasters his province had experienced.
“I have never seen something like this,” he said.
The death toll included six high school students who were washed away when their school bus was caught in floodwaters on Tuesday near a river close to the town of Mthatha, which was especially hard hit and at the center of the worst flooding. Four other students were among the missing, Mabuyane said.
Ramaphosa offered his condolences to the affected families in the Eastern Cape in a statement from his office and described the situation as “devastation.”
Power outages have affected hundreds of thousands of homes in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.Eastern Cape provincial government officials said hundreds of families were left homeless and in temporary shelters in that province after their houses were washed away or broken apart, while at least 58 schools and 20 hospitals were damaged by the floods, which mostly affected Mthatha and the surrounding district.Other houses were left submerged under water.
Cars and debris that were carried away by the floods were left strewn in piles as the rain stopped and the water began to subside.South Africa is vulnerable to strong weather fronts that blow in from the Indian and Southern Oceans. In 2022, more than 400 people died in flooding caused by prolonged heavy rains in the east coast city of Durban and surrounding areas.Poor areas with informal housing are often the worst affected and where the majority of fatalities occur. AP