A devastating flood in South Africa's eastern coastal province earlier this week has left at least 341 people dead, the government said on Thursday, as rescuers continued to hunt for missing people amid forecasts of yet more rains from Friday.
"A total number of 40,723 people have been affected and sadly 341 fatalities have been reported," Sihle Zikalala, premier of the affected KwaZulu-Natal province, said in an online press conference.
Akhona Mfencane, another Isiphingo resident, who was seeking shelter at a community centre, said she fled her house after it was flooded and she was left with nothing."The place is always flooding, but this time around it was worse, we have never seen it like that before," said Mfencane. "We don't have water, we don't have electricity. It has been tough," said Thabisile Mathumbu, adding that communities were not given advance warning of heavy rains. "We should have been warned."
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the province on Wednesday, described the disaster as "a catastrophe of enormous proportions," adding that it was "obviously part of climate change".
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