Shipping containers carried away and left in a jumbled pile by floods in Isipingo, south of Durban, South Africa.
(Picture: AP)“Catastrophic” floods in South Africa have claimed the lives of at least 300 people.
Heavy rains have washed away roads, bridges and disrupted ports as a months worth of rain fell in a day in some areas of the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa, visiting flooded areas of Durban adding it was a “catastrophe of enormous proportions”.
“We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change,” he said.
The death toll is expected to continue to rise as search and rescue operations continue in the province, officials said. The province is about to be declared a disaster area by the national government, said Mr Ramaphosa.
“KwaZulu-Natal is going to be declared a provincial area of disaster, so that we are able to do things quickly. The bridges have collapsed, the roads have collapsed, people have died and people are injured,” said Mr Ramaphosa.
He said one family had lost 10 members in the devastating floods.
Residents have had to flee their homes as they were swept away, buildings collapsed and road infrastructure severely damaged. Durban port was flooded and shipping containers were swept away into a jumbled heap.
