“We have at least five deaths,” said preliminary information from the mayor, who is still trying to reconfirm the data despite difficulties on the ground, as there is no power or telecommunications.
According to Manuel Araújo, two people died in the collapse of precarious houses, two others were caught by a falling tree and the fifth fatality was surprised by a boat thrown from the river of Bons Sinais.
In one of Quelimane’s streets, residents carry one of the fatalities, covered with blankets, in the pouring rain.
Braving the elements, they say they are taking him to the city hospital morgue.
“I had never seen anything like it,” Manuel Araújo tells Lusa, referring to the strength of the storm being so strong that the waters of the river “threw an entire ship over the bridge pier of the fishing port.”
Throughout the municipality and surrounding area, roofs have been ripped off buildings, walls and fences collapsed, power poles and trees are lying on the ground, and countless precarious homes have been torn apart by the violence of the rain and wind.
The city hospital lost its roof, leaving several patients in the rain, meanwhile transferred to covered areas, the mayor describes.
Quelimane is built on “a swamp area, there are no elevated areas” and “even the prepared centers are flooded”, so schools are the only safe places and a lot of people live there, he also says.
Other residents wander through the rubble in remote neighborhoods, trying to salvage what they can.
The peak of the storm “happened at 8 p.m.” on Saturday (6 p.m. in Lisbon), “it was the time when many houses collapsed,” says Justino Magro in Bairro do Aeroporto.
Now, in the middle of the precarious home he built, he picks up the scraps of furniture and belongings.
Aira Oliveira confirms the time of the worst phase of the weather: “After 7 p.m. we saw a lot of flies.” “We haven’t slept at all, it’s tragic and we need a lot of help,” the resident describes.
Lourenço Ribeiro, another resident, points to the strong winds as the main culprit, after the heavy rains that fell since Friday. “It was very windy, so much so that almost all the roofs were removed from the houses,” he emphasizes.
A National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD) warehouse that used to store 40 tons of food for humanitarian aid also lost part of its roof and the water now threatens to ruin bags of supplies.
Authorities recommend that the population remain in sheltered areas.
The INGD has opened shelters and issued warnings for the population to leave precarious homes and riverine areas, which are usually subject to flooding.
Cyclone Freddy has already lost strength and is now a tropical storm, but it is expected to bring heavy rainfall to central Mozambique until Wednesday, leaving the threat of flooding predominant.
It is the second time the weather has hit the country, after a first hit on February 24 that left 10 dead due to adverse conditions over several days.
* journalist from Agência Lusa
Source: DN
