Four people unaccounted for in Durban floods

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It’s a race against the clock for rescue teams searching for missing flood victims in Durban, as more rain is predicted for KwaZulu-Natal.

Four people remain unaccounted for following a flash flood at the weekend. Eleven people have been killed in torrential downpours across the province which caused destruction and infrastructure damage. Coastal areas such as La Lucia and uMhlanga Rocks were amongst the hardest hit.

An extensive search for 23-year-old Lungisani Ncobeni who went missing on Saturday evening continued. Ncobeni was crossing the Mhlasini bridge by foot when the river broke its banks and washed him away.

Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) searched the Canelands river for Ncobeni. According to RUSA four people remain missing in Groutville and oThongathi. The eThekwini municipality says six people have lost their lives with another death in Folweni.

Ncobeni’s family says they desperately want to find his body.

“I am not happy about the way they handled our case because it not only my case there are other affected people. I only saw their work this morning after I had confronted one of their big man you can call colonel or lieutenant. I don’t know. That was only when I saw their reaction, them conducting a search and rescue team,” says father of Lungisani, Eric Ncobeni.

IPSS Search and Rescue were also searching for a couple who went missing when they were washed into the oThongathi river. Family members and friends of the couple were inconsolable when the SABC visited. The IPSS Rescue team searched the area in a helicopter. But the search was challenging due to moving debris along the river.

“One of the biggest difficulties are working in flooded areas. We don’t want to risk the life of our own team members, so we have to balance the safety of everyone involved unfortunately the teams underground and aren’t large enough to cover all the areas especially when we have widespread flooding like we did on Saturday night. Teams become very stressed and it becomes dangerous especially working with very small teams in flooded rivers,” says IPSS medical rescue’s Samantha Meyrick.

And while the search continues, those affected are picking up the pieces.

“It’s not easy losing everything. I don’t know where to even start but I have to do something. I can’t live in the mud, the problem is we don’t have water, so cleaning isn’t easy,” says Dumisani Dlamini, community member.

In uMhlanga Rocks, some residents whose cars were flooded in an apartment block’s basement are still in limbo.

Video: Residents of Umhlanga Rocks dealing with damaged infrastructure

Meanwhile, the Ethekwini municipality is appealing to communities to work with the relevant authorities to avoid further endangering lives as heavy rains persist in the city this week.

“On Saturday, we were expecting a level 2 rainfall but what came was something else and beyond level 2 so it shows you can predict but can’t be accurate or 100 percent of the magnitude and volume of rainfall that is coming. Ours is to caution our communities those who are living near the rivers and along the rivers in riverbanks they need to move immediately once they see that the rain is starting to intensify, they need to because the issues of clothes and other material and goods that will be seen what becomes more important and our primary objective it’s to save lives,” says Mxolisi Kaunda, eThekwini mayor.

The municipality says it will be on high alert this week, as more rain is predicted.