KWAZULU NATAL FLOODS


The death toll in the floods in KwaZulu-Natal was 341 on Thursday evening, said premier Sihle Zikalala as he briefed journalists on the province's response to the disaster. 

The eThekwini metropolitan municipality was hardest hit, with 301 deaths recorded. Ugu on the south coast recorded six, UMzinyathi two, King Cetshwayo four and iLembe 28 deaths. About 55 injuries had been registered.

Zikalala said 40,723 people have been affected by the floods, with 248 schools damaged. 

He said the magnitude of damage will definitely “run into billions of rand” but  the province was still quantifying the damage.

Kumsa Masizana, a forecaster at the South African Weather Service (SAWS) told Our Burning Planet that last Friday South Africa had a weather system which referred to as a “cut-off low system” – a very intense low-pressure system that develops in the upper air and extends all the way down to the surface.

“This system is well-known for bringing some significant rainfall across the country and it results in a drop in temperatures. So it’s a very slow-moving system that started on Friday, that started affecting the central and eastern parts of South Africa. As the system started moving eastward, moving over the country, it went over to KwaZulu-Natal where it exited the country and then formed a low-pressure system… a subtropical depression”.

Masizana said that “the low-pressure system was situated just off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal which is still feeding in a lot of moisture along the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal into the adjacent interior also spreading into the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape which is a result of all of that flooding. It persisted for about two to three days and some areas got some significant rainfall, areas such as Virginia – got over 300 millimeters of rain [over 24 hours]. That system only died down on Tuesday”.

Asked if we should expect more heavy rain over the weekend, Masizana said: “Yes, there is another cut-off low system that is currently developing. It will start bringing in some rainfall tomorrow, which is Friday, where the rainfall will be concentrated once again over the central and the eastern parts of the country but the most significant day will be on Saturday when we are expecting 80% which is widespread showers across Gauteng, the North West, eastern Free State as well as KwaZulu-Natal once again.”

  

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