The World : S. Africa Flood Toll Climbs

The death toll from floods in South Africa’s Natal province was revised upward to 205, while estimates of the number of people left homeless ranged from 55,000 to as many as 590,000. Health Minister Willem van Niekerk said 118 people are missing after five days of heavy rains and flooding last week. Residents of Durban, the nation’s third-largest city, lined up at fire hydrants and water trucks amid warnings by health officials of an outbreak of cholera and other diseases because of the lack of clean water. Thousands of Zulus in northern Natal remain cut off, unable to receive medicine, water and food because access roads have turned into rivers.