The World : S. Africa Flood Toll Rises

Hospitals in Durban, on South Africa’s waterlogged east coast, limited surgery to emergencies, and some tourist hotels put private bathrooms off-limits to preserve dwindling fresh-water supplies. Officials put the death toll from floods in Natal province at 174, with another 86 people missing. Social workers estimated that more than half a million black and Asian squatters had lost their shelters in illegal, crowded settlements on Durban’s fringes. A five-day downpour wrecked all four of the aqueducts supplying water to the metropolitan area’s 1 million residents.