Wielding shovels, mallets and machetes, they worked for four hours to try to shift the muddy debris, hoping that vehicles could at last get through.

In vain: A pick-up truck, stuck on the wrong side of the gigantic mound, was still unable to pass.

Inhabitants of KwaNdengezi, a township west of Durban, have been almost literally marooned since a record storm pounded South Africa's east coast, killing nearly 450 people.

Like people stranded on a desert island watching ships sail tantalisingly by, they have stood as water tankers drive by in the distance.

None of the tankers comes to their aid.

To the bitter residents, it is a sign of an isolation that has now lasted more than a week -- even of abandonment.

"You just feel like you're thrown away, like they don't care about us," said Bryson Khumalo, 24.

He was compiling a list of residents with the greatest needs - those whose homes had been washed away or rendered uninhabitable - to provide to government authorities.

No-one had yet come to check on the community, he said.

"We're doing it on our own. That makes us more angry," he said.

The country has declared a national state of disaster after record rains flooded swathes of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.

The defence force announced Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to help clear debris, rebuild fallen bridges, provide clean water and reconnect severed power lines.

But in KwaNdengezi on Wednesday, no help came as more than a half dozen men struggled to clear a mud-covered road.

Many local people said they remained deeply nervous, still scarred by the sight of roads that became rivers and bore away lives, homes and possessions.

- Fear -

The floods are the worst in living memory, and experts say climate change has played a part in their intensity.

"I'm shaking, as you can see. I'm not angry, I'm worried," said Ntombi Mkhize, 42, a mother of three whose youngest child is just two months old.

"Even if there is a small rain, because of that memory, we feel it is big," she said, adding the fear had caused her many sleepless nights.

On top of that, she is afraid of break-ins and other crimes by people taking advantage of the unlit nights.

Lacking water or electricity, Mkhize said she had been sending her eldest son to collect water leaking from broken pipes far from their home.

She had had to collect wood - still damp from the rain - to build a fire and boil the water, hoping to kill any contaminants.

Many local people said they were consumed by the need to recover bodies of loved-ones, to give them proper funerals and provide closure.

Ntokozo Magcaba, 40, had her eyes fixed on a river where police divers and a canine unit were searching the waters for her missing 23-year-old son.

"They say we must keep looking," she said police had told her when she called for help a week ago. Since then, her husband and neighbours had been searching daily.

Rescuers followed the river for over an hour to where it intersected with a larger waterway.

There was no sign of Magcaba's son.

"I'm broken," she said.

S.Africa deploys 400 troops to flood-hit region
Durban, South Africa (AFP) April 20, 2022 - South Africa's military has so far deployed 400 of the 10,000 troops earmarked for emergency, relief and reconstruction operations in flood-stricken areas, a senior army officer said Wednesday.

Torrential rains last week triggered record floods and mudslides tearing through eastern coastal parts of the country, killing more than 440 people and ripping apart roads, water pipes and thousands of homes.

"Currently we have 400 troops on the ground but the rest of the 10,000 are still coming. This is just an advance (team)," Brigadier-General Andres Mahapa told reporters.

Joint civilian and military search teams are still recovering corpses from the debris more than a week after the disaster struck.

"We are still digging out dead bodies," said Mahapa.

The army is bringing in doctors, electricians and specialist workers, and Mahapa said the focus would now be on clearing roads to allow the movement of goods and transport.

Several areas are still inaccessible -- hampering the delivery of relief aid -- after bridges and roads cracked under the weight of the worst floods to hit the country in living memory.

"We are also going to assist with establishing temporary bridges while we are trying to fix the bridges after the mop up," Mahapa added.

Major-General Sandile Hlongwa, who is commanding the joint operations, said while the country was "prepared" for a disaster, the extent of the devastation had come as "a shock", with unprecedented destruction.

Referring to the destructive mudslides, he said: "We have never had that before".

Earlier Hlongwa and municipal officials including engineers conducted an aerial survey of the city to determine which sites should be prioritised, and work on the ground is set to begin soon, he said.

"We are not going to sleep. We're going to start with our planning in order to execute tomorrow," Hlongwa vowed.

Stricken communities desperate for water and other basic services to be restored have questioned why the military was not brought in sooner.

"We understand the pain they are enduring," Hlongwa said of the flood victims. "To mobilise the equipment and personnel, it takes time."

Related Links
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Toll hits 448 in S.Africa floods, relief effort falters
Durban, South Africa (AFP) April 19, 2022
South Africa's government Tuesday sought to reassure a worried public about efforts to help the east coast, where millions remained without water more than a week after deadly storms pounded the region. Following up a declaration of a national state of disaster, President Cyril Ramaphosa dispatched top ministers to the city of Durban and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, where at least 448 people have now died and 40,000 are homeless. "These floods are the worst floods that we have ever seen in livi ... read more