At least 49 people have died in flooding in South Africa with toll expected to rise, officials say

JOHANNESBURG — At least 49 people were confirmed dead Wednesday as floods devastated one of South Africa's poorest provinces, and officials said the toll was expected to rise as more bodies are recovered in the search for missing people.

The floods hit the largely rural Eastern Cape province in the southeast of the country early Tuesday after an especially strong weather front brought heavy rains, gale force winds and also snow in some parts.

''As we speak here, other bodies are being discovered,'' Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane told reporters at a briefing, adding that it was one of the worst weather-related disasters his province had experienced. ''I have never seen something like this,'' he said.

The death toll included six high school students who were washed away when their school bus was caught in floodwaters on Tuesday near a river close to the town of Mthatha, which was especially hard hit and at the center of the worst flooding. Four other students were among the missing, Mabuyane said.

Authorities found the school bus earlier Wednesday, but it was empty. Three of the students were rescued on Tuesday when they were found clinging to trees and crying out for help, the provincial government said.

A driver and another adult who were on the bus with the schoolchildren were among the dead.

Search and rescue operations would continue for a third day on Thursday, authorities said, though they didn't give details on how many people might still be missing. They said they were working with families to find out who was still unaccounted for.

Disaster response teams have been activated in Eastern Cape province and the neighboring KwaZulu-Natal province after the torrential rain and snow hit parts of southern and eastern South Africa over the weekend. Mabuyane said there had also been reports of mudslides.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the National Disaster Management Center was also working with local authorities in the Eastern Cape, the province that took the brunt of the extreme cold front that weather forecasters had warned was on its way last week. There were unusually large snowfalls in parts of Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State province in South Africa's interior.

Ramaphosa offered his condolences to the affected families in the Eastern Cape in a statement from his office and described the situation as ''devastation.''

Power outages have affected hundreds of thousands of homes in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Eastern Cape provincial government officials said hundreds of families were left homeless and in temporary shelters in that province after their houses were washed away or broken apart, while at least 58 schools and 20 hospitals were damaged by the floods, which mostly affected Mthatha and the surrounding district.

Other houses were left submerged under water. Cars and debris that were carried away by the floods were left strewn in piles as the rain stopped and the water began to subside.

South Africa is vulnerable to strong weather fronts that blow in from the Indian and Southern Oceans. In 2022, more than 400 people died in flooding caused by prolonged heavy rains in the east coast city of Durban and surrounding areas.

Poor areas with informal housing are often the worst affected and where the majority of fatalities occur.

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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa