A freak storm, initially believed to have been a tornado destroyed 178 homes and left 66 people injured in Nkwzela in the Ingwe Local Municipality near Bulwer, KwaZulu Natal Provincial Disaster Management said on Saturday.
"The storm hit at about 3.45pm on Friday afternoon. A number of people were injured by flying debris and were taken to local hospitals," said Mthokozisi Duze, head of Kwa-Zulu Natal's Provincial Disaster Management.
Duze said that a team from the department had been deployed to assess the extent of the damage caused by the storm.
"We are expecting a report at 2pm this afternoon. Local schools have been opened and members of the Red Cross are setting up soup kitchens to assist those who have been displaced," he said.
Although eye witness reports suggested the storm had been a tornado, the South African Weather Service was unable to confirm this.
"We did receive a number of calls from members of the public, but we could not pick up on satellite or radar if there had been any cyclone activity. At this stage we can only confirm that it was a very big storm," said Stacy Colborne, a forecaster with at Durban Weather Service. - Sapa