Historic floods in South Africa leave almost 400 dead

Devastating floods in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, in the south-east of the country, have left around 400 dead people.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in the area, after the equivalent of months of rain was recorded in a single day, which has been described as “one of the worst weather storms in the history of our country”.

Landslides have trapped people under buildings and more flooding is expected.

Rescue work has been hampered by poor visibility.

On Tuesday, the BBC witnessed one such search operation for a girl from 10 years that he was part of a family of four people dragged by a flooded bridge.

Volunteers in the community s e entered the muddy river, taking turns cutting branches with machetes and removing debris and garbage.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the disaster “is part of climate change”, but some locals have blamed the poor state of the infrastructure.

What role has climate change played?

The weather system that triggered the flooding caused more than to fall mm of rain over a period of 24 hours on 11 of April.

The amount of rain that fell on Monday was equivalent to approximately 75% of average annual precipitation in South Africa.

Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, from the University of Kw aZulu-Natal, says the climate was typical of the type that develops off the coast of South Africa, with warm, moisture-laden air blowing in from the Indian Ocean.

The mountainous terrain in that area of ​​South Africa also means that the air rises and as it does, it cools and forms rain clouds.

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) said that the amount of rain recorded was “on the order of values ​​normally associated with tropical cyclones”.

Mabhaudhi believes that it is not correct to attribute individual climatic events that occur on short time scales to longer-term trends, such as global warming.

But SAWS experts say that severe weather events are becoming more frequent and more extreme as a result of climate change.

“In other words, heavy rain events such as the current incident can be expected to recur in the future and with increasing frequency,” the service said. .

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