Hitting Malawi for the second time, Cyclone Freddy killed nearly 100 people in the country’s south, where torrential rains triggered flooding, the disaster management agency said on Monday, expecting an even higher score.
An earlier report provided by the Malawi Red Cross and authorities reported at least 66 deaths in Malawi and 4 in Mozambique.
“The death toll, including in the other districts that have been affected in the southern region, has risen to 99 dead,” agency official Charles Kalemba told a news conference, adding that he expected an even higher score. .
Malawi has declared a state of disaster in several regions in the south of the country, including the economic capital Blantyre, the presidency announced Monday.
The head of state, Lazarus Chakwera, “watched with great concern the devastation that Cyclone Freddy is currently causing in many districts… and declared a state of disaster” in the south, he said in a statement.
The longest cyclone on record?
On track to be listed as the longest cyclone ever recorded by forecasters, Freddy had already hit Madagascar and Mozambique in late February. The balance was then 17 dead, thousands of displaced and houses devastated.
Returning to the region last week following an unprecedented circular path, it fell for the first time in Madagascar for the second time in two weeks, killing 10 people.
He then returned to hit Mozambique on Saturday night. At least four people died in the province of Zambézia (center), open to the Mozambique channel, local authorities told AFP. But the balance is likely to go up, the information comes with difficulty due to cut communications.
A city isolated from the world
The port city of Quelimane (centre), some 40 km from where the cyclone made landfall, remains largely cut off from the rest of the world: roads, water, electricity are cut in places, according to Guy Taylor, spokesman of UNICEF. on the site contacted by phone.
Many people are missing, authorities said. And the disaster seems to have overcome fears: “The emergency accommodation centers have overwhelmed because the number of people affected has been higher than expected,” Luisa Meque, president of the national disaster management office, told AFP.
Floods and landslides
The cyclone, which was accompanied by strong winds and torrential rains, moved overnight from Sunday to Monday towards neighboring Malawi, causing flooding and large landslides. Schools in the country among the world’s poorest have been closed in much of the south.
Most of the bodies were found in the Blantyre area, according to local police.
“Relief operations are still ongoing but are hampered by incessant rains,” spokeswoman Beatrice Mikuwa said.
The phenomenon, which formed off Australia and reached storm stage in early February, has been wreaking havoc in the Indian Ocean for 35 days. It passed off the French island of Réunion and Mauritius causing limited damage there.
Several storms or cyclones cross the southwestern Indian Ocean each year during the hurricane season that runs from November to April.
Source: BFM TV
