Bonakele Mtshali was not present at the funeral when floods off the east coast of South Africa washed away his metal-roofed shack on a hill in Lindelani township, accompanied by his two daughters. Her eldest son, Zamani, 23, received a call on Thursday from some townspeople who found the body near the river. It was Baphiwe, his 17-year-old daughter. Mtshali’s daughter is one of about 400 people, possibly more, killed by torrential rains that hit the coast, leaving about 13,600 people homeless and many families mourning the missing relatives.
Flood zone
There is no indication of Mtshali’s daughter, Ntwenhle, 11. She has lost all hope of finding him alive in her hometown by a river outside Durban, a flood-prone harbor that has claimed the lives of 40,000 people.”I feel numb, empty and empty,” he told Reuters as his apartment building collapsed into a ditch. “The loss is very deep.”
Searching for survivors
South Africans were still searching for survivors on Friday, and the government had raised emergency funds to bring in thousands of homeless people, electricity and water – disaster experts say they will increase as the weather warms up. Some simply want to close by finding the dead.
“The naked body was full of sand. But I saw that she was my sister,” said security guard Zamani, referring to his nephew, a promising student who dreamed of becoming a scientist. “I covered her body, and went with her.”
In Gandhi village, near Durban, where mud-brick houses have been reduced to rubble, with many homeless, NokwakhaNonketha (48) has been searching for her nephew Sivela (32) who has been missing since Tuesday night. He said they had to search alone as the authorities had not yet arrived to help them. “We have not stopped digging. We will dig until we find him,” he said.
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