Seven people died and at least another seven remain missing following the torrential rain that pelted KwaZulu-Natal last Tuesday.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) said that this comprised six people in the eThekwini region and one person in the Ugu District on the KZN South Coast. Spokesperson Sibuniso Mngadi said two people died in Cato Manor, one person in Pinetown, one in Durban North, while two bodies were recovered in Bayhead, and one person died in the Port Shepstone area.
“Rescue teams are still searching for seven more people, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government said in a press release. About 70 houses have been destroyed and more than 100 damaged in the wild weather. More than 150 people have been left homeless, the provincial government said. People were taking refuge in schools and other buildings,” said the department.
On Monday, eThekwini Municipality officials visited Cato Crest in ward 101 as part of its continuing interventions to assist people who were affected by the rains. About 370 people were affected in the area and the municipality has embarked on a process of identifying land to relocate the victims. The eThekwini Community Services chairperson Councillor Zama Sokhabase commended NGOs that are working with the City to provide food, clothes and blankets to affected families. “The City will activate a nutrition centre in the area to provide three hot meals a day,” said Sokhabase.
While many people have reported that they witnessed a tornado rip through their homes north of Durban, weather forecaster at the South African Weather Service (SAWS), Wiseman Dlamini said what residents witnessed last week was not a tornado, but a “landspout” event.
“We can confirm that the heavy storm that left a trail of destruction in Inanda and Phoenix [and surroundings] was indeed a landspout event not a tornado as it was reported. There are similarities between the two, however, a tornado is more destructive as compared to a landspout.
“The SA Weather Service has not been able to record the exact average wind speed that swept through Inanda and Phoenix last week,” said Dlamini.
In a statement issued last week, the SAWS said landspouts and tornadoes were not similar. “Both phenomena manifest themselves as a dark, spinning vortex or tube extending from the base of a cloud. Both phenomena have the capacity to cause wind damage, as we witnessed.
“The formation of a tornado requires a ‘parent thunderstorm’. Interestingly, there is no evidence to suggest that any electrical storms were active in the Inanda and Phoenix areas when the landspout was observed. No eyewitnesses mentioned either lightning or thunder. Moreover, despite cloudy conditions with rain being observed throughout much of the day at King Shaka International Airport, no thunderstorms were observed.”
In April 2022, the province was hit by the worst floods in living memory, causing more than 400 deaths in Durban and surrounding areas. Experts have warned that floods and other extreme weather events are becoming more powerful and frequent as the world gets warmer, due to climate change.
