Mozambique residents told to flee as floods hit storm-damaged areas
Serious flooding has hit parts of northern Mozambique already damaged by Cyclone Kenneth three days ago.
With water waist-high in places, the government urged people to immediately seek higher ground. Hundreds of thousands of people were at risk with more rain forecast for days ahead.
“Help us, we are losing everything!” residents in the region’s main city, Pemba, shouted at passing cars as the rushing waters flooded their homes and heavy rain fell. Women and girls with buckets and pots tried to scoop away the torrent, in vain. The water poured into doorways.
United Nations staff said houses had begun to collapse and a rescue team was mobilising.
“We are unfortunately expecting devastating floods,” the UN humanitarian agency said in a tweet.
Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai ripped into central Mozambique and killed more than 600 people with flooding.
The new storm’s remnants could dump twice as much rain as Idai, according to warnings from the UN World Program, with up to nine inches, or about a quarter of the average annual rainfall for the region, forecast over the next few days.
“I have never seen such rains in my life,” said 35-yearold Pemba resident Michael Fernando.
This was the first time in recorded history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.
Some Pemba residents tried to pile up tires and sand-filled sacks as barricades. Children took refuge in a bus that appeared to be stuck as vehicles struggled on the streets. One woman stood, seemingly stunned, as the rain pounded down. Cars began to slip under the waters.
“We will keep moving until we get somewhere safe,” one man said, as people fled carrying belongings in plastic bags.
There was no immediate word of deaths yesterday. At least five people died after Cyclone Kenneth struck last Thursday evening with the force of a Category 4 hurricane, stunning a region where such a storm had not been recorded in the modern era.
Nearly 700,000 people could be at risk in the largely rural region. More than 35,000 homes in parts of Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado were partially or fully destroyed by the storm. On Saturday, aerial photos showed several coastal communities flattened by the storm.
“Not a single house is standing any more,” Saviano Abreu, a spokesman with the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters.
Mozambique is already struggling with one of the world’s highest poverty rates.