“The scale of the devastation is so big; bodies were washed down the rivers and washed out to sea.”
This was Netcare 911 spokesperson Shawn Herbst’s heart-wrenching account of this week’s tragedy following the devastating floods that swept through KwaZulu-Natal this week.
Speaking to Sunday World yesterday, Herbst said some of the people trapped under the rubble might never be reunited with their families again.
They are all presumed dead as any hope of finding survivors is fast fading away.
Herbst said there are still many people missing and trapped under the mud, rocks and debris in the wake of the torrential rains that triggered landslides.
Netcare 911 is part of a multi-disciplinary search and rescue operation that includes the South African National Defence Force, the National Sea Rescue Institute, Cape Town’s K-9 unit and several other emergency services.
Herbst said their main focus is now on the recovery of missing bodies, an effort that is being severely hampered by the torrential rains that were still pouring yesterday and the destruction of the road network.
“We don’t even know how many people are trapped under the mud and the debris. There were instances in informal areas that were hit the hardest where houses were completely covered in mud,” Herbst said.
“Entire houses, livelihoods, entire families were swept out. We are expecting the number (of those who died) to increase substantially,” he said, adding that the recovery efforts are going to extend into months to come.
“Sadly, we do know that a lot of those people lost their lives under rock and debris,” he said.
Nonprofit organisation Gift of the Givers chairperson and founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman told of the horror and pain of seeing people scrambling to find their loved ones, with hope
fading they will be found alive.
“The Gift of the Givers has been attending many countries such as Mozambique and others where there were natural disasters over the years, and what we have seen in KwaZulu-Natal is a tragic disaster as this has affected people so badly,” Sooliman said.
“People are trying to find their missing loved ones, and this is so painful to witness as the people want to find closure,” he said.
The South African Weather Service on Friday issued “disruptive rain” warnings for the Durban area.
“Sinkholes, mudslides, rockfalls and soil erosion are possible. Damage to formal/informal settlements and major disruption of traffic is possible,” the warning reads.
SA Weather Service forecaster Lehlohonolo Thobela said: “Warnings of disruptive rain are sitting at Level 5 in the greater areas of KwaZulu-Natal and on Level 4 in low-lying areas of the province, and in this sense, we are warning people that they need to be aware of flooded areas where there will be mudslides, rockfalls, sinkholes and soil erosion.
As of yesterday, the death toll had risen to more than 400 people who perished as heavy rains battered the province, leaving mayhem and misery.
The National Funeral Practitioners Association of South Africa (Nafupa SA) said some funeral parlours were severely damaged and had to close down. He added that the eThekwini metro decision to suspend funerals this weekend created a nightmare for funeral practitioners.
“This weekend, we couldn’t do anything because most cemeteries were damaged, and the municipality prohibited any burials. Most cemeteries were damaged and the soil is still wet posing danger,” said Nafupa SA.
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