Death toll from southern Africa cyclone and floods exceeds 700
Date: Mar 25, 2019
Cyclone Idai and floods in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawai have killed at least 732 people and left thousands in desperate need of help, many on rooftops and trees.
Mozambique reported scores more deaths on Saturday from a cyclone and floods around southern Africa that have killed at least 732 people and left thousands in desperate need of help, many on rooftops and trees.
Cyclone Idai lashed the Mozambican port city of Beira with wind s of up to 170 kilometres per hour (105 miles per hour) last week, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, swamping populations and devastating homes.
Mozambique’s death toll rose to 417 from 242, Land and Environment Minister Celso Correia said.
“The situation is getting better, still critical, but it’s getting better,” he told reporters at the airport in Beira that has become a centre for aid operations.
The storm has also killed 259 in Zimbabwe, while in Malawi 56 people died in heavy rains ahead of the cyclone.
In all three countries, survivors have been digging through rubble to search for victims, and scrambling for shelter, food and water, while governments and aid agencies rush in help.
“All our food got wet, we didn’t know where to go with the children. We don’t have anything,” said Mimi Manuel, a 26-year-old mother of four who lost her home and was sitting on the floor of a makeshift shelter in a primary school in Beira.
At the refuge, families cooked with wood from trees ripped up by the storm, as toddlers played around battered school desks. Manuel wore a necklace with the word “Hope.”
