Johannesburg - Flooding in South Africa’s Durban area has taken at least 259 lives and is a “catastrophe of enormous proportions,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa, while visiting flooded areas of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area, said, “This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here”

He also said the KwaZulu-Natal province is about to be declared a disaster area by the national government as death toll is expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations continue.

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.

The South Africa Weather Services has warned of continued winds and rains and the risk of continued flooding in Kwazulu-Natal and other provinces over the upcoming Easter weekend. South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Free State and North West provinces could be affected, it said.
-AP