The tragic personal stories are now coming to light.
We had 400 mm (nearly 16 inches) of rain in four days (from about 10th - 13th April). There have been 435 deaths with many more still missing. One poor woman lost 11 members of her family. Thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed. The Toyota factory was flooded and hundreds of new cars were under water.
On a personal note, we have been EXTREMELY fortunate that we did not suffer any damage in our retirement village, and our power and water was restored fairly quickly. The longest we were without power was 22 hrs, and water about a day (although it does go on and off periodically, but that is merely a slight inconvenience).
A nearby shopping mall, which is one of the biggest in SA, is still without water and they have portaloos in the carpark.
Many communities are still without power or water, and some completely cut off. A writer friend lives next to an area that was cut off when what used to be the road became a ravine. Her community got together to make food and they had to deliver it via a long ladder placed in the ravine. When the mayor arrived to assess the damage he just stood and shook his head.
Animals and snakes have been washed up on the beaches having come down the flooded rivers, including a chameleon that was still alive. I guess that would be another story for
Leon Chameleon PI to solve.
My doctor’s house was destroyed in the floods. Instead of rebuilding she has decided to move to the Cape where she was offered a practice. So that is a sad loss to us.
Our local shopping mall was completely flooded with water and mud up to the tills in the supermarket. It is still closed 3 weeks later. It is also our nearest post office and place where we renew our car licences. Opposite the shopping mall is the drivers' testing ground and where we renew our driving licences. It is also closed as computers and records etc. are under water. Thank goodness I renewed mine in January. We do have another shopping mall about 10 mins away.
It is going to take months and billions of rands to repair all the damage.