Cyclone Freddy has killed at least 44 people in Malawi, Mozambique
BLANTIER, Malawi (AP) – At least 44 people have died in Malawi and Mozambique since an unrelenting Cyclone Freddy, which is currently battering South Africa, struck the continent for the second time on Saturday night, authorities in both countries confirmed.
At least 39 people have died and several others are missing or injured in Malawi’s commercial center of Blantyre, the city’s chief executive told The Associated Press on Monday. Authorities in Mozambique said five people have been killed in the country since Saturday.
The deaths in Malawi included five members of a single family who died in Ndirande town in Blantyre after Freddie’s destructive winds and heavy rains destroyed their home, according to police reports. A three-year-old child who was “trapped in the wreckage” was among the victims, while her parents were also missing, authorities added.
“We suspect the number will increase as we try to compile a national report from our south-west, south-east and east police offices covering the affected areas,” Malawi police spokesman Peter Kalaya told the AP.
Cyclone Over the weekend Mozambique and Malawi were hit and on Monday. This is the second time a record-setting cyclone has occurred Wreaking havoc in South Africa since late February — made landfall on the African mainland. Also pummeled it The island nation of Madagascar and Reunion when it crosses the ocean.
The cyclone has intensified a record seven times and has the highest recorded accumulated cyclonic energy, or ACE, which is a measure of how much energy a cyclone has released over time. During its lifetime, Freddie recorded more strength than a typical US hurricane season.
Freddie first developed near Australia in early February and traveled throughout the southern Indian Ocean. It remains the longest-running tropical cyclone on record. The United Nations Meteorological Agency has convened an expert panel to determine whether the record set by Hurricane John in 1994 was broken by 31 days.
Freddie made landfall in the Mozambique port of Quilimane on Saturday with reports of damage to homes and farmland, although the extent of the destruction is not yet clear. Telecommunications and other essential infrastructure are still cut off in the affected Zambezia province, hampering rescue and other humanitarian efforts.
French weather agency Meteo-France’s regional tropical cyclone observatory in Reunion warned on Monday that the “heaviest rainfall will continue over the next 48 hours” as Freddie barrels on. Mozambique’s Central Province and Malawi have been identified by weather observers as particularly vulnerable to “flooding and landslides in mountainous areas”.
Most of the damage in Malawi has been in houses built in areas prohibited by law, such as in mountainous areas or near rivers where they are battling landslides, flash floods and rivers bursting their banks. The cyclone forced the Malawian government to suspend schools in 10 districts of its southern region “as a precautionary measure”.
Freddie is expected to weaken and move back out to sea on Wednesday, according to Meteo-France.
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Alexandre Namposa and Tom Gould contributed to this report from Maputo, Mozambique. Kabukuru reports from Mombasa, Kenya.
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