The deaths of the dramatic floods in South Africa already number 350 and those affected number more than 40,000

The catastrophic floods in South Africa left at least 341 people dead and affected nearly 41,000 people, according to a new balance this Thursday, while in the Durban region they continued to line in front of morgues to deposit bodies.

Most of the victims died in the area of the city of Durban, one of the main African ports in the province of Kwazulu-Natal (KZN, east) and the epicenter of the storm that began last weekend. A state of catastrophe was declared.

“A total of 40,723 people have been affected. Unfortunately, there have been 341 deaths,” Provincial Minister Sihle Zikalala said at a press conference.

More than 100 bodies were deposited in the Phoenix morgue on the outskirts of Durban.

“It's too much,” said one of the employees who refused to identify himself, and spoke of the ranks of families who came to bring their dead. Burials are prohibited until the waterlogged ground is stabilized.

The rains, which reached levels never seen in more than 60 years, knocked down bridges and roads and isolated much of this coastal region with the Indian Ocean. More than 250 schools were affected and thousands of homes were destroyed.

The authorities announced the opening of some 20 emergency shelters housing more than 2,100 homeless people.

While waiting to be rescued, thousands of survivors were left to their fate. “There is no one here to help us,” said Thobele Sikhephen, 35, in front of her muddy tin house in a township.

There were also sporadic protests demanding help. In a statement, the Durban authorities called for “patience”, explaining that relief efforts slowed down “due to the extent of the damage to the roads”.

Some roads were cleared with excavators and reopened, but most remain inaccessible, rubble filled or flooded in brown water.

The authorities called on the population to avoid contact with potentially “contaminated” water as much as possible.

Four days without water or electricity

In the Amaoti Ghetto, north of Durban, where most of the houses are made of corrugated sheet metal or wooden planks, there were groups of people filling buckets with drinking water from the pipes that were exposed after the collapse of a huge section of a road.

In some areas, water and electricity have been cut off for four days and everything is missing.

Local authorities called for donating non-perishable food, bottled water and anything else to warm up.

There were also looting and images from surveillance cameras shared on social media showed people storming supermarket shelves.

In the port, the cranes collected the huge metal containers that the previous day's rains had thrown onto the highway.

This region already experienced massive destruction last July, during an unprecedented wave of unrest and looting.

Weather forecasts announce storms and risk of localized flooding during the Easter weekend. The new storms are also expected to affect the neighboring provinces of Free State (center) and Eastern Cape (southeast).

Authorities spoke of “one of the worst storms in the country's history” while President Cyril Ramaphosa lamented “a disaster of enormous proportions.”

(With information from AFP)

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