At least six people have reportedly died as a result of tropical storm Irina, which struck the KwaZulu-Natal coast over the weekend. Rescue teams, emergency workers, and the police worked continuously yesterday to help KwaZulu-Natal residents through the worst of the storm. Durban surfers, however, enjoyed themselves.

Fears that the storm is making its way down the coast have been met with the continued dispensing of severe weather warnings from the SA Weather Service.

The weather service reported that Irina, which was downgraded from a cyclone to a tropical storm during the course of the weekend, was to bring heavy rainfalls over the extreme southern parts of Mozambique, Swaziland, Mpumalanga and the east coast of South Africa, and that there would be a high risk of flooding.

They didn’t get their predictions wrong as more than 180 millilitres of rain had fallen in the Mbazwana municipality, near Sodwana Bay, by yesterday morning. Richards Bay had received at least 245 millimetres.

Petrus Viviers, who lives in St Lucia in Durban, explained she had measured 227 millimetres of rain by yesterday morning in that area.

249 millimetres fell in Kosi Bay, 200 millimetres in Lake Sibaya, and 274 millimetres had fallen in the Sodwana vicinity. Widespread flooding has been reported, and the heavy rain was expected to continue.

Police spokesman, Colonel Vishnu Naidoo, reiterated the warnings and said commercial and recreational fishermen should be alert to the threat. He continued:

A combination of very rough seas, marine storm surge and gale-force winds is likely to threaten the coastline.

IOL readers have been sending in numerous images of the damage and drama, and you can see a gallery by clicking HERE.

Durban’s surfers, however, enjoyed the huge storm swells that buffeted the area. ZigZag Surfing Magazine’s, Calvin Bradley, was on hand to capture some of the rides that went down at Durban’s famous New Pier surf spot. See that footage HERE.

[Sources: News24, SAWeatherObservation]