Current:Home > Contact-us8 people electrocuted as floods cause deaths and damage across South Africa’s Western Cape-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
8 people electrocuted as floods cause deaths and damage across South Africa’s Western Cape
View Date:2024-12-23 15:41:54
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Eight people including four children were killed by electrocution in two separate events after days of heavy rain caused floods in impoverished informal settlements near the South African city of Cape Town, emergency services said on Tuesday.
Four people died in the Driftsands settlement on the eastern outskirts, the Cape Town Disaster Risk Management service said in a statement, as the floods caused problems with electricity connections. Four children were electrocuted and died in the Klipfontein settlement.
Many homes in the poor townships on the outskirts of South Africa’s second-biggest city have makeshift electricity connections, where people hook their houses or shacks up to existing power lines themselves. They are illegal and dangerous, but relatively widespread.
A storm front hit the Cape Town area and the larger Western Cape province for three days, causing rivers to burst their banks and flood residential areas and major roads, both in coastal regions and inland. Hundreds have been evacuated.
Outages caused by the weather left more than 80,000 customers across the province without electricity, the national power utility said. That had been reduced to 15,000 by Tuesday as the rain eased.
Local officials said three people died after they were swept away by flood waters in the mainly agricultural region of Overberg, just over 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Cape Town. The area is one of South Africa’s most important wheat-farming regions and there were fears of major damage to crops and infrastructure from the flooding.
Storms caused by cold fronts are common in the Cape Town region and the Western Cape province. A cold front in June caused around $50 million of damage to the agriculture sector in the Western Cape, according to the provincial government.
___
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
veryGood! (178)
Related
- 'Underbanked' households more likely to own crypto, FDIC report says
- Deadly Thai mall shooting exposes murky trade in blank handguns that are turned into lethal weapons
- Jury hears testimony in trial of officers charged in Manuel Ellis' death
- Lawsuit claiming 'there is nothing 'Texas' about Texas Pete' hot sauce dismissed
- Seattle man faces 5 assault charges in random sidewalk stabbings
- Sam Bankman-Fried stole at least $10 billion, prosecutors say in fraud trial
- Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its march inland
- How Travis Kelce's Mom Donna Is Shaking Off Haters Over Taylor Swift Buzz
- Trading wands for whisks, new Harry Potter cooking show brings mess and magic
- The US government seems ready to order a recall of millions of air bag inflators for safety concerns
Ranking
- Avril Lavigne’s Ex Mod Sun Is Dating Love Is Blind Star Brittany Wisniewski, Debuts Romance With a Kiss
- Indianapolis police capture a cheeky monkey that escaped and went on the lam
- When did the first 'Star Wars' movie come out? Breaking down the culture-defining saga
- Rolling candy sold nationwide recalled after death of 7-year-old
- New York nursing home operator accused of neglect settles with state for $45M
- Cartels use social media to recruit American teens for drug, human smuggling in Arizona: Uber for the cartels
- Sam Bankman-Fried stole at least $10 billion, prosecutors say in fraud trial
- Nearly 50 European leaders stress support for Ukraine at a summit in Spain. Zelenskyy seeks more aid
Recommendation
-
Dramatic video shows Phoenix police rescue, pull man from car submerged in pool: Watch
-
Russia has tested a nuclear-powered missile and could revoke a global atomic test ban, Putin says
-
Teen arrested in fatal stabbing of beloved Brooklyn poet and activist Ryan Carson
-
Bob Menendez's wife hit and killed a man while driving in New Jersey town in 2018
-
Traveling to Las Vegas? Here Are the Best Black Friday Hotel Deals
-
German prosecutors are investigating whether a leader of the far-right AfD party was assaulted
-
Colorado funeral home with “green” burials under investigation after improperly stored bodies found
-
Tom Hanks: Don't fall for AI version of me promoting dental plan