Irish trainee field guide rescued by helicopter as deadly floods swamp Kruger National Park
PHALABORWA, South Africa — In the pitch black and pouring rain on a hillside above the Olifants River, Kim McNaughton waited for the thump of rotor blades. The trainee field guide from County Monaghan had scrambled to higher ground with colleagues after floodwaters cut off their safari lodge in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, washing away a nearby bridge and turning escape routes into impassable mud.
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“Survival mode just kicked in. We had to get to the top of a hill behind the lodge. That was all we could think of,” McNaughton said.
The dramatic airlift came as heavy rains hammered the Limpopo province last week, causing several rivers to burst their banks and swamping large swathes of one of Africa’s premier wildlife reserves. The Olifants River, which runs adjacent to McNaughton’s lodge near Phalaborwa, rose “exponentially” last Tuesday, she said, severing the property from the outside world.
Initial attempts to flee on foot and by jeep failed. A bridge that might have offered a crossing had been swept away. Mud deepened to the point where wheels spun uselessly and boots sank. With darkness falling and water levels rising, the group abandoned the effort and aimed for high ground.
“We were only carrying what we had on our backs. But this area was open Kruger. And we were unsure of what we were going to find,” McNaughton said, describing terrain home to lions, elephants and rhinos as well as the smaller dangers — snakes, broken ground, disorienting bush — that can complicate any night maneuver.
They found the ridge and hunkered down in the rain. “Thankfully, we were the only ones on the hill. There was no wildlife,” she said.
After roughly two hours in the dark, an air force helicopter roared into view and began ferrying people to safety three at a time, hovering above the slope and lifting them out in rotation. It was a precise, measured extraction in treacherous conditions that underscored the scale of the flooding across Limpopo and neighboring countries.
In the days since, the extent of devastation has come into stark focus. Authorities have reported at least 19 deaths in Limpopo, and many homes have been destroyed. Reuters footage from the region showed vast tracts under fast-flowing water, treetops poking through a brown torrent and hippos swimming where grasslands normally stand.
“Right now, I’m just so grateful, so happy, that we made it out. Unfortunately, many lives have been lost and the rescue teams are still searching,” McNaughton told RTÉ News from a lodge outside the flood zone. “I’m really grateful but also devastated at the damage the floods have caused to the whole area.”
The deluge has not been confined to South Africa. Torrential rain and flooding have also hit Mozambique and Zimbabwe in recent days, damaging thousands of homes and forcing tens of thousands to consider evacuation, according to local authorities. In southern Africa, saturated soils and swollen rivers can quickly transform seasonal rains into destructive flash floods, especially when storm systems stall or sweep across already vulnerable catchments.
South Africa’s weather services had warned of severe conditions across parts of the northeast, but the speed at which river levels surged in and around Kruger left communities, lodges and conservation operations scrambling. In a park famed for its wildlife spectacles and traversed by safari vehicles, the defining image of the week became the violent force of water: lifelines snapped, bridges gone, dirt roads gouged away and backcountry tracks turned to sucking clay.
For those working in the bush, the risk calculus changed overnight. Open landscapes that guide training often treats as classrooms became potential hazards — crocodile-haunted channels, hippo paths hidden by chocolate-colored currents, and the possibility of predators pushed into unusual areas by rising water. The instruction McNaughton and her group followed was the oldest in the field: get high and stay together.
Across Limpopo, emergency teams carried out rescues by boat and helicopter as rivers including the Olifants overtopped their banks. As floodwaters begin to recede, attention is shifting to damaged infrastructure, displaced families and the long tail of recovery that rural communities in southern Africa know too well.
Hydrologists and disaster risk experts note that extreme rainfall events have been occurring more frequently in the region. Flooding in southeastern Africa has become more frequent and severe as climate change fuels more powerful storms, intensifies downpours and increases the volatility of wet seasons. While no single storm can be attributed solely to global warming, the pattern of heavier rainfall and rising disaster losses is straining preparedness and response systems from Kruger’s fringes to low-lying coastal plains in Mozambique.
For now, the focus remains on accounting for the missing and restoring access. In Kruger, that means weeks of repairs to ravaged roads and bridges, reestablishing supply lines to remote camps and assessing ecological impacts in areas where river channels have shifted. In nearby towns, it means clearing debris, repairing utilities and supporting families whose homes and livelihoods were swept away.
McNaughton, who came to South Africa to train as a field guide, said the experience sharpened her respect for the bush and the power it can unleash. She remains keenly aware that her story ended with a helicopter landing in time.
“I’m really grateful,” she said again, “but also devastated.”
As the sun returned and the rivers slowly fell, the hill where she and her colleagues sheltered stood dry and silent. Below, the Olifants still ran high and muddy, shouldering past downed trees toward the lowlands, a reminder that even in one of the world’s most carefully managed conservation areas, nature still sets the terms.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
