Hams Respond to Flooding Disaster in South Africa

One of the main reasons that we hams “take it to the field” is to prepare ourselves to get and stay on the air in emergencies or disasters when operating from home isn’t feasible. Contributing Editor PT2ZDX/LU9EFO reports on the amateur radio response to catastrophic flooding in the South African city of Durban.

The torrential rains that occurred this past April were the worst recorded in South African history, causing unprecedented flooding and landslides (). The floods swept away homes, submerged roads, inundated bridges and killed nearly 450 people. The tragedy was centered in KwaZulu-Natal, the second most populous province of the nine in the country. At least 40,000 people are known to have been left homeless. Lately, climatic disasters occur