Kindgo
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Talk about strange weather!
How bizarre is this?!
Areas in South Africa declared disaster zones after storms hammer region
Mon Jul 22,11:38 AM ET
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Some areas in eastern South Africa were declared disaster zones Monday after heavy rains and snowfall caused power failures, destroyed homes and trapped commuters, killing at least 22 people, officials said.
"Everybody's on high alert and ready," said John Fobian, the police rescue coordinator. "It's very devastating."
Most deaths were from hypothermia and drownings and more than 3,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces, the hardest hit regions.
On Monday, emergency workers discovered the body of a man who died of exposure after his shack collapsed in Cala, about 1000 kilometers (620 miles) southeast of Johannesburg.
More bodies were likely trapped beneath the snow, which rose as high as a meter (3.3 feet) in some areas, Fobian said.
Workers were deployed to issue blankets, food and candles and establish medical centers in northern areas of the Eastern Cape. Damage to hundreds of schools, farms and business in the Eastern Cape is estimated at 20 million rand (dlrs two million) but that number could climb, officials said.
While conditions improved Monday, rescue workers were braced for another cold front expected to hit the region Thursday, Fobian said.
The weather also caught hikers and tourists off guard in the Drakensberg mountain range southeast of Johannesburg.
On Monday, 32 tourists trapped in a resort there were airlifted to a nearby town by the army.
"If we hadn't evacuated them they would have been stranded for another five days, and they were running out of food and more importantly sources of heat," said Steve Cooke, a civilian who helped with rescue efforts.
Elsewhere in the same mountain range, rescuers said 16 students evacuated from a snowed-in campsite were in good condition Monday.
Eastern South Africa has been battered by a week of cold weather.
On Thursday nine people drowned when the pickup truck they were traveling in was swept off a flooded bridge, about 600 kilometers (375 miles) south of Johannesburg.
In other weather related developments, livestock have frozen to death and two ships ran aground in heavy storms off the country's eastern coast. Twenty people were arrested for looting stores abandoned during the storm, the South African Press Association reported.
The snow had also trapped more than 130 drivers last weekend in their vehicles for 24 hours, with heavy flurries initially preventing rescue helicopter from reaching them.
Because of blocked roads rescuers had to airlift vacationers stranded at an Eastern Cape ski resort.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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