(11 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mthatha – 11 June 2025
1. Various of rescue workers dragging a body bag through a muddy field in Mthatha after severe floods
2. Wide of rescue helicopter flying over Mthatha in the aftermath of floods
3. Mid of rescue workers on tree
4. Mid of rescue worker assessing tree
5. Wide of flood-damaged landscape with the recovered school bus from the river
6. Wide of recovered school bus
7. Wide of rescue teams coordinating search efforts
8. Various flood-damaged house surrounded by debris
STORYLINE:
At least 49 people were confirmed dead Wednesday as floods devastated one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, and officials said the toll was expected to rise as more bodies are recovered in the search for missing people.
The floods hit the largely rural Eastern Cape province in the southeast of the country early Tuesday after an especially strong weather front brought heavy rains, gale force winds and also snow in some parts.
The death toll included six high school students who were washed away when their school bus was caught in floodwaters on Tuesday near a river close to the town of Mthatha, which was especially hard hit and at the center of the worst flooding.
Four other students were among the missing, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Authorities found the school bus earlier Wednesday, but it was empty. Three of the students were rescued on Tuesday when they were found clinging to trees and crying out for help, the provincial government said.
A driver and another adult who were on the bus with the schoolchildren were among the dead.
Search and rescue operations would continue for a third day on Thursday, authorities said, though they didn’t give details on how many people might still be missing. They said they were working with families to find out who was still unaccounted for.
Eastern Cape provincial government officials said hundreds of families were left homeless and in temporary shelters in that province after their houses were washed away or broken apart, while at least 58 schools and 20 hospitals were damaged by the floods, which mostly affected Mthatha and the surrounding district.
Other houses were left submerged under water. Cars and debris that were carried away by the floods were left strewn in piles as the rain stopped and the water began to subside.
South Africa is vulnerable to strong weather fronts that blow in from the Indian and Southern Oceans.
Poor areas with informal housing are often the worst affected and where the majority of fatalities occur.
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