CYCLONE IDAI HITS MOZ CITY

CYCLONE Idai has damaged an estimated 90% of the Mozambican city of Beira, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said yesterday, citing an initial assessment by a team of its aid workers.

The IFRC said the death toll from the impact of the cyclone, which has also affected neighbouring Malawi and Zimbabwe, was currently estimated at 150.

“The situation is terrible. The scale of devastation is enormous.

“It seems that 90% of the area is completely destroyed,” Jamie LeSueur, who is leading the IFRC assessment team into Beira, said after an aerial inspection.

The IFRC team was among the first to arrive in Beira on Sunday after Idai made landfall around March 14 and 15.

With Beira’s airport closed, the team drove from Mozambique’s capital Maputo before taking a helicopter for the last part of the journey.

Roads into Beira have been cut off by flooding.

“Almost everything is destroyed. Communication lines have been completely cut and roads have been destroyed. Some affected communities are not accessible,”said LeSueur.

“Beira has been severely battered. But we are also hearing that the situation outside the city could be even worse. Yesterday, a large dam burst and cut off the last road to the city.”

Following its landfall in Mozambique, the cyclone continued west into Zimbabwe as a tropical storm, wreaking havoc in several districts in the eastern part, with Chimanimani and Chipinge districts in Manicaland being the hardest hit.

At least 31 deaths were reported and more than 100 people were missing in Zimbabwe, the IFRC said. The aid group has already released about 340 000 Swiss francs (R4.9 million) from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund, which will go towards an initial response effort for about 7 500 people.

The IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, comprising 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

| EPA RESIDENTS of Chiluvi village cautiously walk along a flooded and muddy street left by cyclone Idai, which struck the district of Nhamatanda, Mozambique, last week.

| The Standard LEFT: Flooding caused by the cyclone that hit Zimbabwe on Friday resulted in a number of deaths in the country’s eastern province of Manicaland.

| EPA ABOVE: The cyclone powered into the Mozambican city of Beira, leaving destruction in its wake and thousands, who were isolated in the flooded region, in need of relief.