Heard about the southern African flooding?
People living downstream of dams in Mpumalanga, Swaziland and southern Mozambique have been warned of more floods as dams overflow, the water affairs department said on Thursday. A disaster management team was in Mpumalanga to help local authorities restore basic services to flooded communities.
Although flood waters began to subside on Thursday, the airlifts and ground operations continued.
Police in Casspirs crossed flooded rivers repeatedly to reach trapped villagers, often bringing them across on the roofs of the armoured vehicles because of the height of the water, while civilians rescued people trapped in two buses.
Civilians used private helicopters and specialised off-road vehicles to rescue guests stranded at game lodges in and around the Kruger park.
In scenes reminiscent of the 2000 floods that struck Mozambique, this week’s rescue saw mothers with young children being airlifted from trees and the tops of partially submerged houses.
Interesting aside is the use of ZA for South Africa. Looks like Zambia to me.
[H/T a pair of South Africans]
Filed under: Earth and cosmos, History & Culture, Society & human issues
ZA = ‘Zuid Afrika’
Simples.
Well what the hell is it doing in Afrikaans, when the international online language is English?
Er Dutch actually, Afrikaans would be ‘Suid Afrika’. I guess when the ISO Country Codes were being allocated, Saudi Arabia had more clout, (or arrived first in the alphabetic list). Samoa could possibly feel hard done by as well…
And Zambia?
Glad to see the ‘singles’ being removed
My email inbox has been flooded too! – with pics of the floods. Even my hometown where I grew up has been flooded and the Kruger National Park.
Got any ‘flooded old hometown pics’ for us to post Nikita, or even better ‘un-flooded old hometown pics’?
This blog is showing decidedly dangerous South African tendencies, methinks.
“This blog is showing decidedly dangerous South African tendencies, methinks.”
you’ll be tooting on your vuvuzela next, will you?
I can send you a few. I haven’t got ‘unflooded’ hometown pics as I grew up on a farm. The town is about 30 km from where I grew up, 1/2 hour from the Kruger Nat Park and if you google the ‘Blyde River Canyon’, you will see what ‘my valley’ looks like.
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Ok, 2 mails sent – in all, about 20 pics, I think! Enjoy
JD,
It’s a source of constant irritation to me that UK media and ‘aid fraud’ establishment can be beseeching us to sell our firstborn, and send them the proceeds, to alleviate the effects of supposed ‘disasters’ in the ‘right’ parts of the world, yet pointedly ignore an equal or worse situation a couple of weeks later because it’s in the ‘wrong’ part of the world, or the ‘wrong’ people involved.
Not to mention that their ‘aid’ usually falls into the ‘if things get any worse, I’m going to have to ask you to stop helping me’ category..
So I usually push to highlight it whenever I see it happening.
Thanks Nikita, look forward to seeing the pics. Nice part of the world that.
Hear hear! You want to know the truth why it is the ‘wrong’ part of the world? One word: Boer War – the most embarrassing thing ever happened to England – and we are still not forgiven – they still hate us for it. I don’t want to spam your beautiful site with ‘more’, instead read my blog with the appropriate links.
@Chuckles
huh?
you’ve lost me there
…although I agree that ‘aid’ is a fraud
JD,
It’s the strange selection of ‘approved’ causes that gets to me.
If there is a heavy shower in parts of east Africa or Haiti, we have incessant and increasingly shrill demands for money in all areas of the UK media. The ‘suffering’ MUST be assuaged.
Here we have a large area – Eastern South Africa and large parts of Mocambique, hit by two strong storms systems in succession, and it barely rates a mention in the UK press, or raises a murmur with any of the aid junkies.
Why? Who decrees that Southern East Africa must fend for themselves, but Northern requires unlimited aid at the drop of a hat?
@Chuckles
huh?
I’m still lost….
what does all that have to do with my comment about James giving us a tune on the vuvuzela?
Clearly, that has to be prevented at all costs,
but I was trying to clarify that the ‘South African’ focus in this instance was more a ‘natural disasters’ focus rather than specifically about SA.
Oh I like this internecine stuff.
Yes, natural disasters or not, aid is always distributed to the ‘right’ people or ‘right’ parts of the world. Africa is a continent with lots of ‘issues’ and lots of interesting discussions can develop from it. A vibrant place. News in the UK is always ‘boring’ as ‘nothing’ really happens that is ‘exciting’ as in Africa. Only when a someone was murdered or riots, then there’s ‘something’. LOL… you will have a neverending-discussion on your site once you start on Africa – the ‘wrong’ part of the world, best is, don’t. haha…