“We can do nothing,” said the South African woman who watched the flood engulf her home.

For a moment, Zukiswa Mbuku and her husband were having breakfast and had a regular Tuesday. Next, when the violent flood swallowed the home, they had only clothes on their backs to escape.

The elderly couple lives by a river in the South African town of Mthatha in the coastal Cape province and is currently in a state of national disaster as people try to recover from last week’s deadly flood.

Mbuku said she and her husband had just finished their meal when neighbors ran in and warned them to run because the river water quickly approached the house. From the rear window, they can already see their garden flood.

Mbuku tells happen Host nilk ʧksal.

The river seemed almost running towards them, but without any prestige, like a silent but terrible horse, she said. Within minutes it surrounded their house on the windows.

“We had to rush because everything happened so quickly,” she said. “We can do nothing.”

“Unprecedented, disastrous, unimaginable”

Last week, the Extreme Weather Front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to South Africa’s poorest province, killing 92 people, and damaged roads, houses, schools and other infrastructure. Mthatha is the hardest blow.

According to local media reports, at least two unverified missing children were washed off on the bus, and thousands were displaced.

Authorities have called on residents to report missing persons so rescuers can better understand how many people they are still looking for.

“Since June 9, the province has been hit by unprecedented, disastrous and unimaginable disasters,” Zolile Williams, an executive council member of the provincial legislature, said Thursday at a memorial service for victims for Mthatha.

“Since that day, the Eastern Cape has been different.”

Working to rebuild what is missing

For Mbuku, life is certainly not the same.

She said she and her husband found shelter while they were on the local bed and breakfast, only five homes from their flooded houses.

“We are on the bend of the river. So all the houses that bent before the river stretches are affected,” she said. “Other houses are on the upper side. The water never arrives.”

When the flood receded, the couple returned to their house to assess the loss.

“When my husband opened the front door, the water fluttered like anything. It was powerful,” she said. “The refrigerator was floating, the chairs were floating, the sofa was floating.”

Some of her furniture was dismantled and thrown away around the house, she said.

While the house is still standing, it is still too wet and the water is damaged to move back, especially in Mbuku’s asthma.

“We are 70 years old. It’s very painful,” she said. “How have you collected and recovered everything you collected over the years? What do you do?”

Community unites

Announcement of a national disaster allows the government to release funds for relief and rehabilitation. But Mbuku said she had not received any help from government officials. She said local councillors called them and “promise them to do something because of our age.”

“We thought they would provide us with accommodation, but not,” she said, instead, she said, her family helped them find a place to stay.

But she said her community — relatives, neighbors and members of the church — stepped up their support.

“We are helping each other,” she said.