Rescuers face struggle to reach flood victims
International aid has started trickling into Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi to ease the humanitarian crisis created by floodwaters from Cyclone Idai.
Relief efforts that were initially stifled by airport closures slowly gained steam yesterday, and foreign governments began pledging aid to help the region recover from the worst flooding in decades.
‘‘Everyone is doubling, tripling, quadrupling whatever they were planning,’’ said Caroline Haga of the Red Cross in Beira, Mozambique, referring to supplies and aid workers. ‘‘It’s much larger than anyone could ever anticipate.’’
The United Nations allocated US$20 million (NZ$28.9m) for a humanitarian response to the crisis. The European Union released €3.5 million (NZ$5.7m) in emergency aid. Neighbouring Tanzania’s military airlifted 238 tonnes of food and medicine.
Sacha Myers of Save the Children, speaking from Maputo, Mozambique, described rising floodwaters, ‘‘rivers and dams bursting their banks’’ and a death toll in the hundreds that was destined to climb.
She said getting emergency supplies where they needed to go remained difficult, with roads washed away or submerged, and few options for storage in dry areas. ‘‘We’re having an unfolding crisis that’s getting worse and worse.’’
The UN was deploying resources as well, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said, but logistics remained challenging and the hardest-hit areas remained inaccessible.
Emergency teams are running out of time to save thousands of people in Mozambique trapped since last week by rising floodwaters.
Torrential rain is hampering efforts to reach survivors marooned in trees and on roofs. Aid agencies warned that their chances of survival without clean water or food were narrowing.
Many people can be reached only by boat or helicopter as water levels rise and high winds are predicted to generate large waves. Hunger and illness are urgent concerns, with crops destroyed and waterborne diseases such as cholera likely to spread.
The country’s death toll was officially 202, but the final number is likely to be more than 1000.
In Zimbabwe, 100 people are confirmed to have been killed, although another 217 are missing. In Malawi, where 56 people have died so far, up to a million people have been affected.
– AP, The Times