"The catastrophe underscored an overlooked reality in the fight against extreme weather: Protecting people is as much about tackling social issues as environmental ones."
"DURBAN, South Africa — In 2009, as officials in the port city of Durban prepared to host the next year’s World Cup of soccer, they moved hundreds of residents from their tin shacks near the city center to a flood-prone field south of town.
The new settlement, a tight cluster of squat homes made of drywall, was built without electricity and tucked between a noisy highway and a river. Officials acknowledged the flood risk but promised residents that within three months, they would be moved into permanent houses, recalled Themba Lushaba, who was resettled with his girlfriend.
Thirteen years and four devastating floods later, Mr. Lushaba, 34, remains in the settlement, still waiting for that permanent dwelling. The most recent flooding, which followed torrential rain last week, was the worst yet. Water rose past his belly button in the pitch black, forcing him and his neighbors to take refuge in a distant field, shivering beneath umbrellas all night.
South Africa suffered one of the worst natural disasters in its recorded history when last week’s storms in the Durban area killed at least 448 people, destroyed thousands of homes and left behind shocking scenes of devastation. Shipping containers were toppled like Legos onto a major highway. Vacation houses, their support pillars washed away, dangled from mud-streaked hillsides. Tin shack homes were buried."
John Eligon, Zanele Mji, and Lynsey Chutel report for the New York Times April 20, 2022.
Advertisement 
