Durban - As the rain eased on Wednesday morning after nearly five day of unrelenting torrential downpours, a true picture of the devastation began emerging.
Countless homes were damaged, trees uprooted and critical infrastructure that supplied people with water and electricity were in ruins.
By midday on Wednesday the death toll the of worst flooding to hit KwaZulu-Natal in a generation had climbed to more than 60.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Durban and was taken to some of the worst affected areas. He spoke to families who lost loved ones and surveyed the damage which could run into billions of rands.
Ethekwini Municipality spokesman, Msawakhe Mayisela said numerous areas had suffered water and electricity outages caused by loss or damage to infrastructure.
Durban was one of the worst hit areas.
Several major high-voltage substations have flooded and are currently inaccessible to municipal workers and there were growing fears that many areas would be left without clean drinking water for days.
"Crews will be working in shifts until the high-voltage supplies are restored. Some substations will need to be rebuilt and this may cause extended delays. eThekwini has suffered an unprecedented amount of damage of infrastructure through landslides, flooding and wash-aways overnight," Mayisela said.
Meanwhile, KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala said the province had activated seasonal contingency plans of sectors, province and municipalities to co-ordinate multi-sectoral response efforts.
"Undoubtedly billions of rand worth of damage has been caused to homes, places of work, roads, bridges, electricity and water supply, and other critical government infrastructure. None of our districts have been spared, but the eThekwini Metro has been the epicentre of this disaster, with most of the rain and the worst damage," he said.
IOL