South African Flood Likely Worst In Nation's History

This AP photo of shipping containers swept away by
water indicate the power of the recent South African flooding.

 I'm kind of surprised that a disaster this big has received almost no attention. 

A massive storm has hit parts of South Africa in the past few weeks, causing an epic flood that resulted in at least 440 deaths. 

The Washington Post and several other news outlets did report on this calamity, but the South African disaster did not garner big-time headlines or huge amounts of notice. 

The Associated Press on Tuesday said 448 people have been confirmed dead in the flooding and mudslides and another 40 or so people are still missing. 

The worst of the flooding  hit around the city of Durban and the surrounding KwaZulu-Natal province, the AP reports.  

The extreme rains caused huge landslides that swept buildings down hillsides and buried an unknown number of victims.  

According to The Washington Post:

"Rainfall was primarily caused by subtropical storm Issa, which was named on April 12 off the coast of South Africa. More than 200 millimeters (7.9 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours, with some stations reporting more than 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) as of Tuesday."  

That 11.9 inches of rain within 24 hours fell on Durban, South Africa.  That was four times the amount of rain the city normally sees in a full month. On a single day! That stat is incredible.  

In and around Durban, at least 40,000 people remain homeless due to the flooding. Damage to infrastructure alone, never mind homes and businesses is at least $400 million. 

South African President Cyril Ramophosa promised that government money for flood victims will not go to corruption, but more than a few South Africans are skeptical. 

The AP reports: 

"Ramaphosa's remarks come after widespread graft was uncovered by the state's Special Investigating Unit in state funds that were supposed to help the nation respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Health Minister Zweli Mkize resigned after the investigation found that businesses linked to his family benefitted from inflated COVID-19 contracts from his department." 

Like many other parts of the world, South Africa has in recent years been rocked by dramatic and dangerous weather extremes.  Climate change is at  least partly responsible for these events. 

The city of Cape Town, South Africa, with a population of about 4.7 million (including my dear friends Denis and Michael, hi there!) almost completely ran out of water in 2018 in the infamous "Day Zero" drought.

Cape Town was not seriously affected by the recent flooding as it's around 800 miles from Durban. But rains have helped the city's reservoirs recover, at least for now.