SOUTH Africa’s flood-ravaged east was hit by more rain Saturday after the deadliest storm to strike the country in living memory killed nearly 400 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
Floodwaters engulfed parts of the southeastern coastal city of Durban this week ripping apart roads, destroying hospitals and sweeping away homes and those trapped inside.
Emergency services in the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, where Durban is located off the Indian Ocean coast, were on high alert.
Recovery operations and humanitarian relief were underway in the city of 3.5 million, which would normally have been teeming with Easter holiday-makers this weekend.
Toll rises
The death toll rose Saturday to 398 while 27 people were still reported missing, the government said in a statement. More than 40,000 have been rendered homeless.
“Sadly there are still bodies being recovered from homesteads, especially from the rural areas,” Shawn Herbst of the first responder
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