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dam-l South African dam break/LS
from ANC Daily News Briefing
[ MOZA-FLOODS < by subject > NAMIBIA-UNITA ]
[ .. < by length > BOTSWANA-BUDGET ]
N/L-RAIN
THIRTEEN DEAD AFTER HEAVY RAINS IN NORTHERN PROVINCE, MPUMALANGA
JOHANNESBURG 7 February 2000 Sapa
Thirteen people, including four children, have been killed and more than a
dozen are feared drowned following
torrential rains which have left a trail of destruction across the northern
and north-eastern parts of South Africa.
Northern Province police spokesman Captain Aliwei Mushavhanamadi said heavy
rains had bucketed down over the
area since Saturday.
"I have never seen it rain so hard before," he said, adding all the rivers
were full.
Northern Province premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi promised to visit flooded areas
soon to see whether the government
could provide emergency assistance.
All the deaths Mushavhanamadi reported occurred in and around the Louis
Trichardt/Thohoyandou areas.
On Sunday an eight-year-old girl and an elderly woman died in separate
incidents when houses collapsed on them.
Police were also searching for a seven-year-old boy who was last seen
playing alongside a river on Monday morning.
He was thought to have drowned.
Two soldiers are also thought to have died after their car was swept away
in the early hours of Monday when a dam
wall burst. A third soldier managed to swim to safety, Mushavhanamadi said.
He said the bodies of two 19-year-old students and their teacher were
recovered by police divers on Monday
afternoon. Their Toyota Corolla washed into a river at Tshitale.
A 38-year-old man also died trying to cross a river in Tshakhuma. A
20-year-old man met a similar fate nearby.
Mushavhanamadi said 24 minibus taxis were washed away at Dzingahe, outside
Thohoyandou, on Sunday when they
ended up in a swollen river.
Police spokesman for the Northern Province's Lowveld region, Inspector
James Ngoepe, said 59 houses were washed
away at Mningimisi, near Giyani.
Those left homeless were housed in community buildings.
Three-year-old Fezeka Ngomane from Bushbuckridge died on Monday when a wall
of a mud house collapsed and
fell on her. Her nine-year-old sister was seriously injured.
In a similar tragedy, 10-year-old Beauty Mathebula died when the dwelling
she was in at Maswanganyi near Giyani,
gave way after it was saturated with rain water.
Ngoepe said a 35-year-old soldier died while helping people cross a flooded
river in Seloane near Phalaborwa.
At Buluvedu near Tzaneen, a 51-year-old man drowned while crossing the
Molototsi River on Sunday afternoon.
Beit Bridge border post official Godfrey Letlalo said the Limpopo River was
in full flood.
"The water has reached the electric border fences on both sides," he said.
In Mpumalanga, police confirmed that two people drowned, while six others
were thought to have drowned.
Captain Harry Shabangu said the bodies of a seven-year-old girl and
74-year-old woman were recovered at Pienaar
outside Nelspruit on Monday afternoon. One other person was still missing.
He said police were searching for a 10-year-old child and another person
who were feared drowned when trying to
cross a stream on at Masoyi on Monday.
A 17-year-old girl was feared drowned at Msogwada Trust.
Two others were missing in Hazyview, he said.
Earlier reports that five other children were feared drowned could not be
confirmed.
Extensive damage around Nelspruit and at Skukuza in the Kruger National
Park was also reported. Houses were
flooded, bridges collapsed and parts of the park were isolated as
torrential rains continued in the province.
Parks official Daleen Rautenbach told Sapa late on Monday afternoon:
"Things are going crazy. Everybody is
running around, trying to save some of their belongings."
She said water from a raging stream was already reaching up her driveway,
while several other houses in Skukuza's
staff village were submerged.
All roads to Skukuza were inaccessible, and staff were cut off by a swollen
river from their homes. They were being
ferried by two helicopters to their houses to retrieve what property they
could.
Dozens of rondavels close to the Sabie River had to be vacated, and about
150 tourists were stranded at Skukuza.
The Weather Bureau said the heavy rains in Mpumalanga, parts of North West
and the Northern Province and
KwaZulu-Natal were expected to continue until at least Tuesday.
A spokesman said in Pretoria: "The downpours are definitely excessive but
they are not part of a tropical cyclone.
They are being caused by an extensive low pressure system over Botswana."
Kotze said up to 300mm of rain had been measured in the Nelspruit area and
more was expected overnight. A few
houses were under water, at least three bridges had been swept away and a
number farm dams had broken.
Nelspruit airport was closed for most of the day. Trees had been uprooted
and traffic disrupted. Many inhabitants of
Kabokweni, near White River, could not reach their workplaces.
A Lowvelder who had just returned from Mozambique, where more than 100,000
people have been left homeless,
described the situation there as chaotic.
Many bridges were awash. A dam in Swaziland was also reported to have
broken its banks.
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source: gopher://gopher.anc.org.za/00/anc/newsbrief/2000/news0208
processed Tue 8 Feb 2000 09:19 SAST.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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