/ 21 June 2008

Flooding hits Cape Town as KZN mops up

Heavy rains have left more than 4 000 people living in informal settlements homeless in the Cape Peninsula, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday.

The affected areas include Samora Machel, Kosovo and Guguletu.

Those displaced have been accommodated in community halls and provided with blankets and meals.

Meanwhile, two more people have been reported killed in the torrential rains that battered the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast this week, bringing the death toll to 12, police said on Friday.

Superintendent Zandra Wiid said six people died in the Port Shepstone area and another six in the Umzinto area.

The body of an eight-year-old boy was found under the rubble of his collapsed home in Louisiana on Thursday. The bodies of a 93-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man were found at their home in Club Marina, Hibberdene, late on Thursday, said Wiid.

Clean-up operations have started on the South Coast as residents and emergency services try to clear rubble and debris left in the aftermath of the floods.

”At this stage, four people are still missing,” said Brian Dube, spokesperson for the Ugu district municipality.

At least 1 000 people were displaced by the floods and received shelter at local police stations and community halls. Dube said people who were most affected were from the informal settlements.

Aid agencies in the region have appealed to the public to donate canned foods, blankets, clean water and clothes to the displaced people.

The Red Cross appealed to those who want to help with donations to contact its regional branch on Tel: 039 682 0205.

The Durban weather bureau said the heavy downpour had broken four rainfall records, one of them dating back to 1964. — Sapa