South Africa’s flood-ravaged east has been hit by another downpour of rain, after the catastrophic storm killed nearly 400 people and left tens of thousands homeless. Flood waters from the deadliest storm to hit the country in living memory engulfed parts of the coastal city of Durban earlier this week – tearing apart roads, sweeping away homes and those trapped inside them, and sinking heavy cargo containers. Emergency services in the south-eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is located, were on high alert as weather forecasters predicted more rain over the Easter weekend. “It’s already raining in some parts of KZN but it won’t be as hectic as it was in the past few days,” said Puseletso Mofokeng, a senior forecaster at the South Africa weather service, adding: “But because of the soil being oversaturated with water, we can still get a lot of flooding.” The provincial government said on Friday disaster management teams were on “high alert to swiftly respond to communities known to be at high risk, to avert or minimise the disaster impact”. Troops, police and volunteer rescue workers are operating out of a small civilian airport normally used for airshows and training pilots. NGOs are working to distribute clean water, and authorities have promised to deploy water tankers. Shawn Herbst of the first responder company Netcare 911 said: “Sadly there are still bodies being recovered from homesteads, especially from the rural areas. “There is still damage taking place, especially with the rain we are experiencing today which is aggravating the areas that have been damaged.” The death toll rose on Saturday by three, to 398 while 27 people were reported still missing, the government said in a statement. The floods have wrecked more than 13,500 houses and completely destroyed about 4,000. Thousands of displaced citizens are in shelters scattered across the city. In a church speech to mark Good Friday, the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, urged people to pray for all those affected by the floods. He called the floods “a catastrophe of enormous proportions … not seen before in our country”. He added: “Just as we thought it was safe to get out of [the Covid] disaster, we have another disaster, a natural disaster descending on our country.” Days earlier, on a visit to badly affected areas in KwaZulu-Natal, the president said the disaster was a direct result of the climate crisis, but some communities have blamed poor drainage and infrastructure for exacerbating the scale of the damage. The government has announced 1bn rand ( £52m) in emergency relief funding. The South African weather service has warned of thunderstorms and flooding in KwaZulu-Natal into Saturday evening. More than 4,000 police officers have been deployed to help with relief efforts and maintain law and order amid reports of looting.