Toll in Mozambique cyclone, floods could surpass 1,000: Prez

MAPUTO/HARARE : The number of people killed in a powerful storm and preceding floods in Mozambique could exceed 1,000, the president said on Monday, putting the potential death toll greatly more than current figures.

Only 84 deaths have been confirmed so far in Mozambique as a result of Cyclone Idai, which has also left a trail of death and destruction across Zimbabwe and Malawi, with vast areas of land flooded, roads destroyed and communication wiped out.

Speaking on Radio Mocambique, President Filipe Nyusi said he had flown over the affected region, where two rivers had overflowed.

Villages had disappeared, he said, and bodies were floating in the water.

“Everything indicates that we can register more than one thousand deaths,” he said.

The cyclone has also killed 89 people in Zimbabwe, an official said on Monday, while the death toll in Malawi from heavy rains and flooding stood at 56 as of last week. No new numbers had been released following the cyclone’s arrival in the country.

Caroline Haga, a senior Red Cross official who is in Beira, said the situation could be far worse in the surrounding areas, which are completely cut off by road and where houses were not as sturdy. Nyusi flew over areas that were otherwise accessible, and some of which had been hit by flooding before Cyclone Idai.

AP The Red Cross says as much as 90% of Mozambique's central port city of Beira has been damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Idai.