South Africa's Kruger National Park shuts after severe floods

By Thando Hlophe

South African authorities shut Kruger National Park on Thursday to day visitors, after several rivers that run through it burst their banks as the result of days of heavy rains, they said.

Tourists already staying at lodges inside the park were permitted to stay, apart from areas around the Letaba river that were evacuated, South African National Parks said.

Reuters TV footage showed vast areas of the park submerged by fast-flowing water, with treetops poking out of the floods and hippos swimming between them. Signs announced that roads were closed.

Flooding in southeastern Africa has become more frequent and severe as climate change makes storms in the adjacent Indian Ocean more powerful.

"This water's moving very fast," Kruger spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli told Reuters on the scene, next to a road that had been closed and was half submerged by running water, adding that authorities had shut the Phalaborwa gate, near Kruger airport.

"We’ll close it for 24 hours and monitor what is happening."

He added: "we're not really worried about the animals," because they tended to move to higher ground in such situations.

South African tourist Gerhard Ackerman sat on the veranda of his lodge, overlooking the floods with a drink in his hand.

"It's God's way of putting water back into the earth," he said. "We're enjoying it."