Imtiaz Sooliman – Linda Mnisi speaks to from Gift of the Givers, on KwaZuluNatal floods
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A reporter from a program called the program discusses a recent disaster that left many people dead. The search and rescue operations are continuing and the police are trying to retrieve the bodies of the people who lost their lives. The segment also includes a discussion of the safety of working in a hot environment and the importance of keeping people safe.
AI: Summary ©
Get an update on the floods. We're joined now by reporter Linda, see
who's live for us from Durban north. Linda, of course, As
evening sets in, you know, I think the country is really trying to
begin to digest that just the scale of this disaster, over 200
people being lost, at least for now, and that number could very
well continue to increase,
absolutely Cathy. And from where we are standing right now, search
and rescue operations are underway. Cathy. And when you
think everything you know has ended. Now people are rebuilding
their lives. There comes another tragedy. In fact, this one
happened on Monday when a wall fell into the room of a domestic
helper here in Durban north. What you're seeing right now on your
screen are members of the canine unit from the saps. They're
digging behind a house here in Durban, north that wall there
collapsed into a room, and she was buried, you know, under that
rubble. So it's been, what, almost two days now that you know, the
search and rescue operations have been going on. Gift of the givers
also stepping in to try and get some assistance for the people who
are working here on the ground. I'm joined now by the director of
gift of the givers, dr, nitya Sullivan. Sullivan, thank you so
much for your time. I want you to talk to us about what really
happened here. Well, it was strange enough on Monday night
when I was busy with a program I saw what's the name socially, I
post about this house, not knowing it's a friend's house. And then I
got a message from my wife to say, Do you know friends house? The
Wall fell from the top. I went into the house, this house above
this house, went into the dining room, and then the next wall fell
down. The neighbors, the friends, and collapsed onto the domestics
room, and they realized the domestic was caught up under the
rubble. So on Monday night, they call the search and rescue teams.
It rains, was quite heavy at a time, and from then, they've been
very good. They've been trying to retrieve the body. But, I mean,
it's raining, you can see the money just keep getting worse. And
to get the equipment, the right equipment, which is a bucket,
remember, you have to go to small areas. You have to come to a
small, narrow cap to go to the top. The TLB is too big and and
they have don't have the right equipment, because in such demand
Asmaa everywhere the whole province. So we, when I came on
site, I didn't know they needed that. So when I came to visit
them, just out of sympathy, and when I realized what they did, we
made a call, and within an hour, somebody responded, and the person
was here and is coming with a vodka later. But in the meantime,
it appears that the such a restrictive have made great
progress. Apparently, the smell of the body is quite clear now from
the room, from in the house, and they found a leather wallet that
belongs to the domestic and other items that belong to the domestic.
Because at the beginning they were not sure if they were taking the
right place, but all this rubber falling, you can't be sure if the
body is displaced and it's mountains of rubble. So you know,
with all the hard effort, it looks like we're quite close to finding
the prison.
And of course, now how long will it take? I mean, I know you won't
be able to tell us exactly how long it will take. But I mean,
looking at the amount of work that still needs to be done, has the
family been notified? How long do you think we'll still be here for?
I'm hoping it's not going to be too many hours. The only limiting
factor is how long the social risk of people can work. It's
exhausting work. It's hard work, manual labor. Through all that
trouble, they just cut a pool pump that fell from the top. Now they
took it out, and I think they motivated. I get the sense that
they feel they're quite close, and that's putting them on. And if
they battle, and, you know, and it's still, Bobcat comes, we will
have the body out tonight. All right, thank you so much. MTS
Asmaa, they're giving us, you know, a sense Kathy, of what
happened here. So it seems the search and rescue teams have made
great progress in terms of trying to locate where, exactly,
you know, the body is. Earlier on, when I arrived here, I managed to
spot, like a sniffer dog, you know, who, which was also part of
this team. MTR is telling us how difficult it is to try and get to
that body, given, of course, the mud, if you look at the wall there
and how it has fallen over to this particular room, if you were just
an ordinary person who did not know what exactly happened here,
you wouldn't even begin to suspect that a body could be trapped
underground. So the work then continues Cathy, and it gives you
a kind of a picture of perhaps the damage that has been caused by
this rain. This incident happened on Monday, but we're still here
trying to retrieve the body and make sure that, of course,
everything goes according to plan. So there you have it. Kathy, it.
Seems they still have a long way to go, but are making progress.
All right. Linda nisi, let's leave it there for now. Plenty more
coverage from him later on in the program.