Holiday town reels from flood devastation
Durban - A leather lounge chair and a champagne bottle lay among the debris in the oozing mud, a stark reminder that nature has no favourites.
That was just one scene in the holiday town of Umdloti on Thursday, yet another scene of devastation from the massive flooding and torrential rains which left many shell-shocked this week.
One video clip which went viral on social media saw water raging through an apartment building along the upmarket Umdloti beachfront, pouring through onto Beach Road.
With mopping up operations under way ahead of this Easter weekend and a much hoped-for influx of upcountry visitors, many residents remained without water this week, which was cut during the storm.
A number of roads had either collapsed or were a mire of quicksand.
When the Independent on Saturday visited the area, local store manager Busisiwe Dlamini said she’d woken at 3am that day and had cried for all the loss and devastation for so many communities across KwaZulu-Natal.
“I just cried. When travelling in taxis you hear about everything that’s been happening, it’s just terrible,” she said, adding that some Easter visitors had already arrived and she hoped many would not cancel and would still arrive for the holiday weekend.
“I’ve cleaned water out of the shop for two days and our holiday stock is ready. This is the last holiday weekend for a while. The last time we had a good holiday period was December 2019. We’ve all had a lot to cope with and counselling should be available for everyone,” she said.
Upstairs all the restaurants were closed and Dlamini said they hoped the water supply would be restored.
Across the road at the garage, excavators were still digging out mud from the forecourt and shop staff were mopping up inside. They said the water level had risen to waist height before subsiding, leaving behind huge mounds of mud.
Going down North Beach Road, former journalist and Umdloti resident Subry Govender said Bellamont Road, where he lived, had collapsed.
“It’s been really bad, there’s no water. We don’t think visitors will take a chance and come now that we don’t have water. To think we used to be packed with visitors during any holiday season,“ said Govender.
He escorted the IOS team to damaged apartment buildings, many of them holiday flats, along the beachfront, saying many rescues had taken place during the night of the storm. Govender said a 91-year-old woman lived in one flat, but could not be moved and the community had rallied around to help her.
The beach was piled high with rubble and debris, including many household goods such as fridges, which had washed down as buildings collapsed.
An apartment block high on the hill was flanked by rubble where flats had washed away.
Along a mud-filled Beach Road, residents were gingerly picking their way through piles of dirt to get to the local shop for water and groceries.
The Gift of the Givers had been to Umdloti the previous day to hand out water supplies.
Security guard Thuli Ndaba stood next to an almost submerged boom gate, saying: “I was at home, so I was lucky.”
At the Tsikhulu apartment building, which had seen torrents of water pouring through it as per the social media clip, contractors were on site. Five flats were destroyed and residents from all units had been evacuated. Tape warning of the danger surrounded the deep sand outside the building with warnings it was wet quicksand.
At another building, contractor Kamil Bhikraj said they had been working on the building on Tuesday when they had to leave. His vehicle was still in the garage, stuck there because of damage to the road.
Free State holidaymaker Sulizna Mcdonald said she and her family had arrived in Umdloti on Sunday, with the holiday being to celebrate her father’s 70th birthday.
“We don’t have water, but we still have a nice view of the ocean and we didn’t get hurt and we didn’t have to get up in the night to find our house was gone. It could have been much worse, we cannot complain,” she said.
The Independent on Saturday