What started as a lovely few days of rain turned out to be a nightmare for many KZN citizens. A sequence of natural disaster events that we will never forget!
Some parts of KwaZulu-Natal experienced more than 450 millimetres of rain in as little as 48 hours, leading to life-threatening floods destroying everything in its path. Homes, informal settlements, warehouses, and surrounding landscapes.
According to Eye Witness News, this storm was the deadliest to date in South Africa with the heaviest rain recorded in 60 years. There have been 300 deaths recorded, more than 6000 homes destroyed, 250 schools damaged, and many home and business owners left with nothing but bits and pieces of their belongings.
Our condolences go out to all those who have lost loved ones and friends to this natural disaster. Our deepest empathy and compassion go out to those who have lost their homes, cars, and all their belongings.
We are so grateful that all of our staff members are safe. Unfortunately, some had to deal with their homes being flooded and local roads being destructed, blocking them from leaving the area. We are so thankful that our KZN practices were not affected by the floods and we got away lightly with one day of our practices being closed.
As a result of the storm, many have been left without water and electricity. Beaches have been loaded with copious amounts of pollution, rubble, reeds, and other contents carried by the floods. During times such as these, it is so important that we all come together as a community to do what we can to help others around us and to help our surrounding environment.
We all need to contribute in any way that we can, the smallest donation or time given to assist will make the biggest difference.
Ways we can all help as a community:
- Help local businesses clean up their spaces to get them up and running again.
- Donate some of your time to cleaning up the pollution on local beaches and roads.
- Donate non-perishable food items to local charities
- Donate clothes and blankets you no longer use to local charities and community drives.
- Offer homeowners and businesses the use of heavy machinery you may have to remove rubble, debris, or sand.
- Share the stories of others, share local community drives, and share donation drives across social media platforms to spread the word of the work that the community is doing and further encourage others to get involved.
Follow @the_litterboom_project @kznbeachcleanup & @thebeachcombproject to find out when and where the community will be getting together to clean our beaches from heavy pollution. You can even do this in your own time if you’d like. Get some family and friends together, don’t forget to take bags, gloves, water and sun protection with you.
For donations of non-perishable foods, toiletries, clothes, blankets, etc please follow @the_riseupmovement_kzn @hopesaorg and @dominofoundation for more information about where donation drop-offs will be and to keep up with where these donations are going.
Lets support our local NPO’s too:
Help the children of our communities – ANGELS CARE & LIV VILLAGE
Help the animals of our communities – PACT & SPCA
Help the families of our communities – ITHEMBA LETHU
Help the woman, children and the elderly of our communities – THE ROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION
We have so much faith in our community and we are hopeful that KZN will be back on its feet in no time!
We are strong, resilient and we’ve got this!
Stay safe and have a lovely Easter weekend ahead.
