Residents on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast have described the sky turning an ominous shade of grey as the wind picked up speed, tearing through buildings, uprooting trees and tossing vehicles like toys during a storm that devastated parts of the province on Monday.
Tongaat has been classified as the worst-affected area with hundreds of houses flattened by heavy rains and a tornado, resembling a war-ravaged area. Other areas such as Umgababa, south of the eThekwini Metro, Eshowe, Utrecht, Osizweni and KwaHlabisa have also been severely affected by torrential rains.
For Berlina Mngadi, 61, the owner of a home in Sandfields, the afternoon's heavy rains, wind and rain brought unimaginable devastation.
“When the hail came, I ran to my room with my grandkids to find safety.”
But shortly after she heard a loud crash. Her heart sank when she realised the roof had flown off and the ceiling was collapsing.
“All I could think off was to keep my grandchildren safe. The baby, who is one year and six months old, was under my legs trying to protect herself because the ceiling dropped onto us and we were trying to block the flying tiles. We didn't know what was happening and everything was all over the place.”
Mngadi said the storm disappeared as fast as it arrived.
“After the wind was over we went outside, and one of the tenants, who is the mother of 16-month-old twins, screamed for help. My son Sphelele ran back inside.
“Then I saw him rushing towards me in tears with one twin — Nawinna who was lifeless with blood pouring from her ears. Nashant was alive, but struggling to breath and badly injured.”
Sphelele, 36, said when he ran back into the house, he was horrified to see Nawinna pinned under the fridge and her mother trapped under a collapsed wall.
“I lifted the fridge and pulled her [Nawinna] out, and then I realised that she was not breathing. She had a head injury and was bleeding from her ears.
“I immediately started looking for Nashant, and somehow you could tell the tornado had thrown her outside the house, I took the kids to my mom because I was in disbelief of what I saw,’’ he said.
“I went back to save the mother of the twins, but I couldn’t because she was too heavy. My brothers came to help me and we took her to the Reaction Unit vehicle because they were the first responders,’’ said Mtshali.
Bonginkosi Myeni told TimesLIVE Premium of his horror when he arrived from work to see the extent of the damage to his house and to find that it had fallen on his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, who are now recovering in hospital.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the destruction on the way here, but even that couldn’t prepare me for seeing my house completely in ruins. It injured two members of my family who are in a critical condition in hospital. I’ve been up all night and until now trying to save some things, but there’s not much left.”
For Georgina Govender, 26, who lives in a double-storey home in Seatides not too far away, the sound of the tornado was deafening.
“It all started at about 3.45pm as an intense thunder storm. Then it was hailing and after a few minutes it was calm. All of a sudden it sound like an aeroplane flying close to the roof or about to crash. I quickly went to look outside. When I opened the door, all I could see was my neighbour’s roof just flying — everything was flying.”
“I ran to my mom and held on tight to her and all that we could think of was praying together as things were just out of our control,” said Govender.
Asha Govender, 54, said she didn’t believe what she saw.
“I never thought that something like this could ever happen in our area. I always felt like this area is safe. We were just sitting on the kitchen floor praying for ourselves until it passes.
“After the tornado passed that’s when I realised the damage. I mean, there is no words to express what I saw and felt. I can’t describe it — it was the worst kind of feeling,” she said.
“We just lost everything in under five minutes and think that it will take time to do the repairs,” Govender said.
KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said the death toll from storm stood at 11 and left at least 1,200 displaced.
Dube-Ncube confirmed Tongaat was the hardest hit area, accounting for the majority of fatalities.
Yogis Govender, a DA executive committee member in eThekwini municipality and PR councillor in the area, said the storm hit several suburbs.
She said the community, residents associations, emergency and rescue services and non-governmental organisations had rallied to execute rescues and clear roads because the municipality had not responded with enough equipment.
“It was quite heartbreaking to see that we really couldn’t get assistance to many of them. We did have our search and rescue team come out within minutes of the disaster striking, but we really haven’t had much municipal assistance to date,” she said.
“We’ve had our roads department come out, but (with) not much equipment. It’s 95% of the community that’s actually rallying — coming in with their own chainsaws, axes, picks and shocks — to clear the roads to get to houses. Some of the injured went with ambulances, but the majority found their own way [to hospitals].”
DA provincial chairperson Francois Rodgers called for the area to be declared a disaster zone so aid could be fast-tracked.
He also questioned the city’s response to the catastrophe, saying disaster management teams could have responded quicker.
“This is not the first climatic disaster we’ve had, and it seems like the city has learnt nothing or does not want to learn how to react responsibly to a crisis in a situation like this and that is such a shame.”
Dube-Ncube acknowledged that the response could have been quicker, but she said it was made harder by the difficulty in accessing the area because of the state of the roads.
“We heard from disaster that one of the difficulties they faced was accessing the area. The major roads were blocked, even the M4. The trucks that were coming from eThekwini municipality couldn’t move because there was even debris there. The electric wires (which fell with poles on the roads) were still live as well so they had to get electricians to dismantle the electricity before they could clear poles and wires from the road,” she explained.
She said that was eventually sorted and ambulances managed to move in and take some emergency cases to a local clinic and later to Dr Pixley ka Isaka-Seme hospital in KwaMashu and Victoria Mxenge hospital in Durban to ease traffic.
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