FLOOD CHAOS 

‘Survival mode kicked in’ – Irishwoman describes terrifying escape from devastating floods abroad as over 100 killed

AN Irishwoman has described her terrifying escape from horrifying floods in South Africa which have left over one hundred dead.

Kim McNaughton, from Co Monaghan, told how she and over a dozen others had to escape into an open safari park packed with wild animals.

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McNaughton is training to become a field guide at Kruger National Park, a safari park in the north-east of South Africa.

The region has been hit with terrifying floods since the rainy season began in November, leaving over 30 dead in South Africa and more than 100 in Mozambique.

McNaughton told RTE News that the river near her lodge started to flood at around 8pm last Wednesday.

She said: “We could hear bottles break, furniture being slammed against walls, and we decided we had to move to higher ground and completely evacuate the lodge, all 18 of us.

“It was raining, it was dark, we had only what we had on our backs.”

The area they were evacuating into was an open part of the safari park where killer animals could have been lurking.

But “thankfully”, the group were the only ones up there, with no wild animals in sight once they reached the top.

The group then waited two hours for the local air force to send a rescue helicopter.

The helicopter took the group three at a time to a nearby safe area where another rescue team was waiting with jeeps.

The Monaghan woman said: “Right now I’m just feeling so grateful, so happy, we all made it out safe.

“Unfortunately, there has been a lot of lives lost and there is still searches happening.

“The rescue teams have been amazing, they’ve been nonstop, they’ve saved so many people.

REGION DEVASTATED

“I’m just really, really grateful, but devastated as the damage the floods have caused to the whole area.”

Torrential rain has hit South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in recent weeks.

Over 100 people have been killed in Mozambique and more than 30 in South Africa since the flooding began last November.

The famed Kruger National Park was closed on January 16 and a red level 10 warning was issued by the South African Weather Service, the BBC reported.

A severe flood risk warnings remains in place for some areas.

Flooding in south-eastern Africa has become more frequent and severe as climate change makes storms in the Indian ocean more powerful, according to the Reuters News Agency.

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