More than 100 people have now been confirmed killed and scores injured after Tropical Storm Freddy hit Mozambique and Malawi, leaving a trail of destruction as it ripped through southern Africa for the second time in a month over the weekend.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, Freddy is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere and could be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone.
Reports have it that the storm pummelled central Mozambique on Saturday, ripping roofs off buildings and bringing widespread flooding around the port of Quelimane, before moving inland towards Malawi with torrential rains that caused landslides.
The full extent of the damage and loss of life in Mozambique in particular is not yet clear, as the power supply and phone signals were cut off in some parts of the affected area. But the storm has killed 99 people in Malawi, including 85 in the main commercial hub of Blantyre, said Charles Kalemba, the commissioner of the department of disaster management affairs, on Monday.
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So far, the total number killed by Storm Freddy in Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar since it first made landfall last month is about 136. The central hospital in Blantyre had received at least 60 bodies by early afternoon, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) country director Marion Péchayre was quoted as saying, adding that about 200 injured were being treated in the hospital.
She explained that the injuries were from falling trees, landslides and flash floods.
“A lot of [homes] are mud houses with tin roofs, so the roofs fall on people’s heads” she said.
At least 10 people died in Mozambique’s Zambezia province, a provincial delegate from the national institute of disaster risk management, Nelson Ludovico, said adding that the figures were still provisional.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
