Durban braces for another wave battering

[Ming]

Hospitals in Durban are filling up with storm victims as rescue and emergency services prepare for "the mother of all storms" expected to hit region's coastline by tonight. Durban's eThekwini Disaster Management team met this morning to decide whether homes along beaches should be evacuated before the storm.

All beaches and ports in the region were closed today after the South African Weather Service issued a warning that high seas with wave heights in excess of 10m are expected along the southern KwaZulu-Natal coastline. Earlier predictions were that waves would reach 7m but the storm has been upgraded.

Freak tidal waves battered the coastline last night and dozens of people had to be rescued, while many others are still missing and feared dead.

Emergency services fielded numerous reports of missing people, collapsing homes and flooding.

Among areas affected by waves of nearly 6 metres were Umkomaas, Isipingo, Ballito, Durban beachfront, the Bluff, Umdloti and Margate.

Isipingo, twenty hotel guests were rescued from the roof of the building after it was flooded by high waves.

At Blue Lagoon Beach, two women aged 19 and 20 were standing in the parking lot when they were hit by a freak wave. One sustained fractures and the other had severe lacerations. The baby was not harmed. On Durban's beachfront, several restaurants and shops were damaged - with shattered windows and smashed doors - after two 3m waves struck between 2am and 3am.

Some 14 workers who were trapped inside the restaurants were rescued by emergency services and taken to hospital. There were no reported deaths.

Waves also hit homes on the Bluff and at Ballito, where 10 houses were extensively damaged - and one beach house had trees in the lounge.
At Amanzimtoti, a wall of the Inyoni Rocks swimming pool was washed away.

In Zinkwazi the parking lot, usually level with the beach, had been eroded by waves. All that remained of a beachfront pub was twisted metal.

Roads leading to the beaches had been closed. NSRI's said many volunteers were making plans to get off work early so that they could be on standby for tonights storm.

[Ming]

God bless all those at sea off Durban