South Africa floods: live updates

Durban, South Africa – As the sun set on a misty Monday evening, Phumla Ngalica wrapped herself in a heavy salmon-colored blanket as she stood on a mound of dirt, staring, eyes brimming with tears, over the remains of her mother’s home north. From Durban – A few stacked concrete bricks about a foot high.

Somewhere under the orange mud, scattered furniture and tin lids, lie her mother, brother and two nieces. Eight days ago, torrential rains and stormy floods washed away the coasts of KwaZulu-Natal province where they were sleeping. Mrs. Ngalica, 36, can barely speak as she waits for someone – anyone – to retrieve the bodies of her loved ones. Her pain was raw and real.

“We need a shutdown so we know peace and they can rest in peace,” she said a little loudly. “We need help.”

Dozens of families in one of South Africa’s largest urban areas have been grappling with similar suffering as efforts continued this week to find people who remained missing after one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history, which claimed at least 443 lives.

Ms Ngalica had come to her mother’s town, Inanda, from her home in the Eastern Cape after receiving a call from her family last Tuesday to tell her what had happened.

Her aunt, Nomvola Zika, 46, witnessed the horror from her home through a narrow lane of the road occupied by Ngalica’s mother, Nomkoselele Ngalica.

Mrs. Zika described hearing a loud bang like an explosion as the nearby Nlongween River blew its banks and swept a large part of the road high above the modest group of houses. After a neighbor woke her up, she rushed outside to warn her family. But she was stopped by the water that was passing her waist in the pitch-black night.

“I ran to warn them about the rising water, but it was too late,” she said. “It was dark, and the water was noisy.”

Mrs. Zika said she heard Polilani Ngalika, son of Nomkoselele, calling from the house for help, asking what they could do. But it was too late. The flood quickly swept away and swept away the house.

Now only a mound of mud, broken trees, mattresses, and other furniture remaining from the house where the victims include Asikelwe Ngaleka, 11, and Yamkela Mjeje, 13. Next to those ruins, all that remains of another house is the pale yellow entrance, with the house number – 5285 – and a painting “Girls Power” next to the front door in black.

Relatives have arrived from all over the country to join the recovery effort. They dig in the mud with shovels and wade into the river. Ms. Zika was searching the local mortuaries.

When a light rain fell from the sky on Monday evening, Ms. Zika felt a shake.

“I’m afraid of the rain,” she said. “I wasn’t before, but now I’ve seen what he can do.”

Khaliqani Ndebele, one of the community leaders, said it felt as if people in that area had been forgotten. Government personnel have yet to conduct a thorough search of the wreckage in an effort to find the missing family. Mr Ndebele said another woman, who had brought her two children to safety on the night of the storm, was believed to have perished in the flood.

Community members had to organize food and shelter for the displaced, and coordinate their own efforts to revive the five missing residents.

“We informed the police, and they said there was nothing they could do to help us,” Mr. Ndebele said. “They need special machines to search for bodies under the mud.”