Island reeling from powerful cyclone’s wrath
IBO ISLAND, Mozambique — Cyclone Kenneth in northern Mozambique ripped the island of Ibo apart. Nearly a week after the storm roared in, widespread devastation it caused is becoming more evident.
Roofs were peeled away from the overwhelming majority of homes. Wells are contaminated, leaving drinking water and the possibility of cholera a growing concern. The aerial approach to the island showed communities flattened.
Thousands of residents who were shocked by the region’s first cyclone recorded in the modern age are now trying to piece together shattered lives.
It took days for significant aid to reach Ibo as rains have lashed the region since Cyclone Kenneth hit on April 25 with the force of a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 41 people.
Fragile signs of recovery have emerged, but the tasks of finding shelter, food and medicine and rebuilding are immense. People are hungry.
Tourist guides had described the island’s scenery as “stunning” and “beautiful.” Ruins from centuries ago used to draw tourists to Ibo, which has a rich history dating to the slavery trade. Now, even those ruins are gone.
Already beset by poverty, most residents have lost everything.
The desperation among the roughly 6,000 residents is palpable after days of incessant rains and nights of sleeping in the open or under makeshift shelters.
At the tiny, bumpy airstrip, children and adults waited eagerly to welcome the aircraft that have begun to bring supplies. Trucks soon made their way a few kilometers over a dusty road to the heart of the Island.
Between Cyclone Kenneth and Cyclone Idai, which tore into central Mozambique last month and killed more than 600 people, international aid contributions “haven’t come close to meeting the urgent needs, and time is fast running out,” Nick Finney of the aid group Save the Children said. “The world needs to act now.”