Overall Green alert Flood
in South Africa

Event summary

Flood can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude, exposed population and vulnerability.

GDACS ID FL 1101840
Death: 2
Displaced: -
Countries: South Africa
From - To 01 Feb - 04 Feb

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Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
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Analytical products
South Africa - Floods, update (ECHO 21 Feb 2023)Tue, 21 Feb 2023 11:46

  • Heavy rainfall has been affecting most of South Africa (in particular the Provinces of Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and North West) since 17 February, causing floods and rivers overflow (particularly the Orange River) that have resulted in casualties and damage. This flooding follows the one already occurred across the Country during the first half of February, that caused at least 12 fatalities.
  • Media report, as of 21 February, two fatalities and four people stil missing across the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality (Eastern Cape Province). In the same Province, one person is still missing in Komani Town (formerly Queenstown). Several people have been evacuated in Lekwa Municipality (Mpumalanga Province) and in Ngaka Modiri Molema Municipality (North West Province).
  • Furthermore, residents in the area of Vaal, Vanderkloof, and Bloemhof Dams along the Orange River (Northern Cape Province) were invited to evacuate after the controlled water discharge operate by local authorities.
  • In Mpumalanga, about 300 families have been displaced and are currently being accommodated in temporary shelters.
  • Over the next 24 hours, more rainfall is forecast over north-eastern South Africa, including the already affected Mpumalanga, and North West Provinces.
Southern and Eastern South Africa, Early February 2023Heavy rain and overflowing rivers affected parts of Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga Provinces in South Africa from early February 2023. Mpumalanga Province Local media reported two people died in the flooded Mlumati River (also Lomati) in Mpumalanga Province in early February 2023. One person died near Kamhlushwa on 02 February. Another fatality was reported in Driekoppies on 05 February. A second person survived the incident. On 08 February roads were flooding in parts of Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit, the capital of Mpumalanga Province, and areas to the southeast of the city including Nkomazi Local Municipality where roads and bridges have been negatively impacted, leaving hundreds of pupils unable to reach schools. Some of the camps and roads have been temporarily closed in the southern part of the Kruger National Park (KNP) situated in the border areas of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Eastern Province Rivers including the Komani River broke their banks on 08 February 2023, flooding areas of the town of Komani in Chris Hani District Municipality. Other areas of the district have since been affected. District officials reported around 1,000 people including about 123 children and 24 infants were moved from their homes and housed at a nearby school.Fri 10 Feb 2023Provided by Copernicus EMS GloFAS
Detailed event map. European Union, 2025. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (37), (2), NASA (4), WMO (1), INFORM (2),