As the result of a terrific storm, a wall of water seventy five feet high, descended White and Black, Umfolosi rivers, submerged Umfolosi village, in the centre of the sugar district, and the whole vast sugar area, and wrecked the superb railway bridge. The water reached the top of the sugar mill, on which the employees and some inhabitants took refuge. Efforts are being made to reach them by boats, but it is difficult. The river is a raging torrent. Railway station stores, hotel, and hundreds of Indian and native cottages, have been swept away, and it is feared that the loss among Indians and natives is enormous. Of three hundred Europeans, sixty-three are missing; twenty-three were saved by boats. The Johannesburg railway department is notified, that three hundred were drowned in the Umfolosi disaster, including refugees on the roof of the mill. Communication with Umfolosi is difficult, the north-east line having been washed away in several places, and telegraphs and telephones being down. The magistrate at Empagneni, and a number of Europeans have gone to Umfolosi. Anxiety is felt at Durban, where a number of the relatives of those working at Umfolosi live. Damage everywhere along the coast is enormous. Sixteen inches of rain in twenty-four hours has fallen at Umkomass, and ten inches in eight hours at Pine Town.
