Demoina made her way from from east to west between Antananarivo and Antsirabe on Madagascar and moved rapidly over the Mozambican channel gathering water as she lost west to east speed over the warm tropical waters. Her journey across the water way separating Madagascar and Africa started on 22 January 19984 and she made land fall on the East Coast off Africa on the 28 th of January.
She moved slowly South wards for the next four days until she reached KZN as far South as Richards by in the Early hours of 1 February 1984. Most off the damage was done because Cyclones pick up speed over land and destroy themself rapidly, but Demoina lingered a little longer and caused major devastation.
Although most of the damage was made in the Pongola catchment area the scars she left in St Lucia Estuary was irrevocable. After the establishment of sugar cane farms in the iMfolozi flood plains and the rapid expansion of human habitation in the Futululu area it was clear that sediment built up was destroying the fragile eco system that was called Lake St Lucia. To counter the impact humans had on the environment a canal system was developed that caught the top soil coming down with the flash floods of the rivers during rainy seasons.
In the late 1960′s a hard surface development was planned for St Lucia Estuary Mouth and Dolloses was deployed on both sides of the Estuary to form a tidal rip current that was suppose to carry all the inflow sediment into the ocean. This worked well as long as the proses was assisted with mechanical equipment like a dredger. By early 1980 a good balance was struck between man and nature and St Lucia Estuary was a healthy marine eco system breeding large amounts of prawn sustaining most of the Tugela Shelve.
Demoina brought so much rain water over such a large area that home made farm dams failed all the way up to Vryheid, Hlabisa and Mkuzi area. The massive force of water took away all the years off planning and hard work completely destroying the function of the Estuary. This has lead to the collapse of several marine species as recently as 2011. So far the Authorities is dumb founded on how to counter the long lasting drought and restore nature to its former beauty.
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