BLANTYRE, Malawi
An unrelenting Cyclone Freddy that is currently battering southern Africa has killed at least 56 people in Malawi and Mozambique since it struck the continent for a second time on Saturday night, authorities in both countries have confirmed.
Local police said 51 people in
Malawi, including 36 in Chilobwe in the financial hub of Blantyre in the center
of the country have died, with several others missing or injured. Authorities
in Mozambique reported that five people were killed in the country since
Saturday.
The deaths in Malawi include
five members of a single family who died in Blantyre’s Ndirande township after
Freddy’s destructive winds and heavy rains demolished their house, according to
a police report. A three-year-old child who was “trapped in the debris” is also
among the victims, with her parents among those reported missing, authorities
also said.
“We suspect that this figure
will rise as we are trying to compile one national report from our southwest,
southeast and eastern police offices which cover the affected areas,” Malawi
police spokesperson Peter Kalaya told the AP.
The cyclone lashed
over Mozambique and Malawi over the weekend and into Monday. It’s the
second time the record-breaking cyclone — which has been causing
destruction in southern Africa since late February — made landfall in
mainland Africa. It also pummeled the island
states of Madagascar and Réunion as it traversed across the ocean.A man stands outside his damaged home in Blantyre, Malawi, Monday, March 13, 2023
The cyclone has intensified a
record seven times and has the highest-ever recorded accumulated cyclone
energy, or ACE, which is a measurement of how much energy a cyclone has released
over time. Freddy recorded more energy over its lifetime than an entire typical
U.S. hurricane season.
Freddy first developed near
Australia in early February and traveled across the entire southern Indian
Ocean. It’s set to be the longest-ever recorded tropical cyclone. The U.N.’s
weather agency has convened an expert panel to determine whether it has broken
the record set by Hurricane John in 1994 of 31 days.
Freddy made landfall in the
seaport of Quelimane in Mozambique on Saturday where there are reports of
damage to houses and farmlands, although the extent of the destruction is not
yet clear. Telecommunications and other essential infrastructure are still cut
off in much of the affected Zambezia province, impeding rescue and other
humanitarian efforts.
French weather agency
Météo-France’s regional tropical cyclone monitoring center in Réunion warned
Monday that “the heaviest rains will continue over the next 48 hours” as Freddy
barrels on. Mozambique’s central provinces and Malawi have been identified as
especially vulnerable to “floods and landslides in mountainous areas” by
weather monitors.A tree lays across a street in Quelimane, Mozambique Sunday, March 12, 2023.
Much of the damage experienced
in Malawi is in homes built in areas prohibited by law such as in mountainous
regions or near rivers where they are battling landslides, unprecedented
flooding and rivers bursting their banks. The cyclone has forced the Malawian
government to suspend schools in 10 districts in its southern region “as a
precautionary measure.”
Freddy is expected weaken and
to exit back to sea on Wednesday, according to Météo-France.
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