Duban is a town in South Africa. Grief-stricken South Africans are still looking for family members who were carried away by last week's floods, which killed 435 people and leftover 40,000 homeless in Durban and the neighboring KwaZulu-Natal region.
The South African army has dispatched 10,000 troops to assist in the search for people who have gone missing, the reconstruction of roads, bridges, and utilities, and the distribution of emergency relief to those who have been displaced by the flood.
The government has set aside $67 million in relief funds for those who have been harmed.
Families continue to hunt for their loved ones' bodies with sad determination. Ntombenhle, his 15-year-old daughter, was last seen trying to cross a low-lying bridge when the waves took her away. Joseph Nkosi, 56, of Inanda township, spends his days with neighbors looking through a debris-laden river stream for her corpse.
"I'm heartbroken," she says "The Associated Press quoted Nkosi as saying. "The only thing I'm praying for right now is to discover her body. I've already accepted the fact that she is no longer alive. All I have is her school tie, which we discovered in a river stream."
Apollo Mdladla, 47, said he and his little daughter are having to cope with the loss of ten members of a neighboring family in a nearby area. When their house was carried away by floodwaters, a mother, her children, and grandkids all died.
"We're still dealing with trauma." My own child used to play with those kids. 'Where is Manelisa now?' she inquires. 'Where has Lulu gone?' As rescue crews searched for remains in the flotsam in his garden, Mdladla said, "I had to be honest and tell her that they had died, since she can see that they are no longer here."
The bodies of five members of the family have been discovered, but the remaining five are still missing, he added.
Families erected homes on the exposed, unstable ground in Durban's low-lying impoverished districts, which had the most lives and homes destroyed. When mudslides buried homes constructed on slopes, however, middle-class and upscale districts were also affected.
Many properties that are still standing must be evacuated since they are now unstable and may fall short, according to Brigadier General Andries Mokoena Mahapa of the South African National Defence Force.
According to Jeff Smithers, head of the University of KwaZulu-Center Natal's for Water Resources Research, the lack of upkeep of Durban's drainage infrastructure exacerbated the floods. To respond to such tragedies, he has urged for better early warning systems.
BY: SURVIVE KHOZA
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