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Clarke, Liz, and Jeremy Maggs (compilers and editors) : "Izikhukhula": The '87 Natal Floods

(Durban: The Sunday Tribune, 1987)

295 x 209 mm; saddle-stitched pictorial wrappers; unpaginated (but, pp. 36); captioned photographs, largely in full colour. Wrappers a little rubbed. Very good condition. 'On Saturday September 26, 1987, after freak and frightening torrential rains, Natal recorded its highest average monthly rainfall in living memory - more than 150 millimetres compared with a normal 64 millimetres. Little did the province know that this was only the beginning. The worst, beyond imagination, was still to come … When a weak sun finally shone again, several days later, a shattered and wounded population was counting the cost of the worst natural disaster in South Africa's history. The grim statistics read like the worst horror story. MORE THAN 300 DEAD, WITH THE BODY COUNT CONTINUING WEEKS LATER. MORE THAN 500 000 PEOPLE HOMELESS. MANY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE INJURED OR MAIMED. DAMAGE RUNNING BEYOND A BILLION RAND. INDUSTRY CRIPPLED. A CITY WITHOUT WATER. … Unprecedented interest in the flood pictures displayed outside Newspaper House in Durban convinced us there was a need for a permanent reminder in print of this tragedy, and of the will and gritty determination of Natal people to survive and overcome all odds. And so the idea for a book was born. … The Sunday Tribune offices overflowed with pictorial records of damage, destruction, bravery, compassion, and humanity. More than 1000 photographs in all. Together with those from local newspapers, we hope that we have put together a historical account of "Izkhukhula" - the flood of destruction, which none of us will forget.'

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