- Four people have died in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal after the southeastern province was hit by heavy rain and a tornado, the authorities said on Thursday.
- Powerful winds and rainfall damaged roads and flooded houses and sewer systems, followed by a tornado that struck north of the port city of Durban on Tuesday.
- “Regrettably, so far four people have been confirmed to have lost their lives,” the province’s disaster management department said in a statement.
- Three people died in Durban and a fourth in wider KwaZulu-Natal, it said, adding that a fifth person was missing and more than 150 were homeless.
- Local daily News 24 reported Nonala Ndlovu, a spokesperson for the provincial department of cooperative governance, as saying that public infrastructure, including sewage systems, has also been damaged.
- The rainy season in KwaZulu-Natal usually runs from November to March, and exceptional rainfall at this time of year is unusual, it said.
- “We are experiencing firsthand the true effects of climate change during the winter season,” the department said.
- In April 2022, the province was hit by the worst floods in living memory, suffering the loss of more than 400 lives 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.
Source:
aljazeera.com
