JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The death toll from severe floods that inundated parts of South Africa’s rural Eastern Cape province two weeks ago has risen to 101, with a 12-month-old baby the youngest fatality, authorities said Thursday.
Two children are still missing.
Heavy rain on June 9 and 10 caused by a cold front resulted in floods that swept away victims and their houses, trapped others in their homes, damaged roads and other infrastructure and cut electricity supplies.
Zolile Williams, an Eastern Cape provincial government official, provided the updated death toll at a press briefing Thursday and said search operations continued for the two missing children.
Williams said 94 of the 101 victims had been identified and their bodies had been handed over to their families. The victims included 38 children. More than 4,000 people have been left homeless across the Eastern Cape province.
South Africa last week declared a state of national disaster, allowing the government to release funding for relief services.
Williams said that an estimated $288 million would be needed to replace damaged infrastructure and the province, one of the poorest in South Africa, needed help from the national government.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the worst affected sites two weeks ago and blamed the heavy rains and catastrophic floods on climate change.
Another cold front hit South Africa’s Western Cape province this week, bringing days of rain and causing flooding in and around the city of Cape Town.
South Africa is vulnerable to strong weather fronts that blow in from the Indian and Southern Oceans. In 2022, more than 400 people died in flooding caused by prolonged heavy rains in the east coast city of Durban and surrounding areas.
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