Powerful cyclone hits flood-ravaged Mozambique

[Theresa42]

Posted here first by Toubib and MHSC. Thanks to you both!

Powerful cyclone hits flood-ravaged Mozambique
22 Feb 2007 09:17:38 GMT
<!-- 22 Feb 2007 09:17:38 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove--> Source: Reuters

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Southern African floods
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<!-- AN5.0: inline article box end --> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.alertnet.org/bin/js/article.js"></script> <input value="13" name="CurrentSize" id="CurrentSize" type="hidden"> By Charles Mangwiro MAPUTO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A powerful tropical cyclone with winds of up to 230 km per hour (144 mph) surged ashore in southern Mozambique on Thursday, uprooting trees, knocking over electric pylons and raising fears of new floods. Cyclone Favio, the strongest to hit the southern African country, is heading towards the Zambezi River valley where it is likely to worsen floods which have already killed some 40 people and driven 120,000 from their homes. Now rated a category four storm, Cyclone Favio hit the tourist town of Vilanculos early on Thursday, destroying a number of houses built of flimsy material, officials said. The National Meteorology Institute, INAM, said Favio's strong winds and rains were concentrated in the province of Inhambane but were felt as far away as Xai-Xai, the capital of nearby Gaza province. "The cyclone is now over land, hitting the tourist town of Vilanculos, and is likely to worsen in the next few hours," said INAM spokesman Helder Sueia. "It's magnitude is stronger than that of the Cyclone Eline, the worst to hit Mozambique in 2000." The cyclone has caused widespread damage at the holiday resort of Tofo Beach, uprooting palm trees and destroying electric pylons around the area which has become a favourite of backpackers and scuba divers, Radio Mozambique said. Sueia said the storm was moving northwards at an average speed of 50 km per hour (31 mph), taking aim at the central Zambezi River valley which is already struggling with a serious flood disaster. "It's moving so fast and by tomorrow it will strike the central port city of Beira as it heads towards the already flood stricken region in Caia," Sueia said. "It's accompanied by torrential rains which may worsen the flooding situation along the Zambezi valley." Mozambique's cyclone early warning system said a storm of Favio's magnitude could bring widespread destruction of homes, buildings and industrial structures including power grids, as well as crops and trees. Flooding in central Mozambique has already displaced more than 120,000 people, with tens of thousands of them in temporary shelters which officials are already having difficulty keeping supplied with food and fresh water. "Our disaster management team is currently busy responding to the floods," Mozambique Red Cross General Secretary Fernanda Teixeira told national television this week. "It will be a sad scenario for the people ... to be hit by a cyclone at a time when they are healing from the recent flooding," Teixeira said. Officials said the problems could multiply in the coming days as Favio dumps its rains in Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, further swelling tributaries which feed the already-flooded Zambezi. Mozambique's worst disaster in recent memory occurred in 2000-2001 when a series of cyclones compounded widespread flooding in southern and central parts of the country, killing 700 people and driving close to half a million from their homes.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22367130.htm

[yielddude]

Re: Powerful cyclone hits flood-ravaged Mozambique

(yield- also another major cyclone heading towards Madagascar)

Situation Update No. 1 On 23.02.2007 at 11:24 GMT+2 Open Close
A powerful tropical storm killed four people and injured at least 70 in Mozambique's resort town of Vilanculos, where thousands of homes were destroyed along with the hospital and power grid, officials said on Friday. Cyclone Favio was downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday as wind speeds dropped from a peak of 270 kph (170 mph) to between 60-80 kph (37-50 mph), but officials fear rains from the storm could still dramatically worsen an existing flood disaster in the centre of he country. Vilanculos Mayor Selmane Amugy said the deaths occurred when Favio crashed ashore early on Thursday, hitting people's homes as they were sleeping. "Four people were killed, 70 others seriously injured and some 2,000 homes were destroyed ... there are no words to describe the drama, I haven't seen such a thing in my life," he said by phone the resort town some 800 km (500 miles) north of the capital, Maputo. "All 600 prisoners escaped when the local jail was destroyed and we had to evacuate some 120 patients from the rural hospital," he said. Amugy said many key buildings in Vilanculos -- a popular beach town favoured by South African and other foreign tourists -- were damaged and the local airport was closed. "We had to call off all operations at the airport ... trees at Tofo Beach were uprooted and homes destroyed and this worsened erosion," he said. Bazaruto Island, another popular Mozambican tourist destination which is reachable only by boats and helicopters, was still cut off from communications as the regional electricity grid was wrecked.

At the peak of the summer season, Bazaruto attracts wealthy tourists from across the world to its upmarket lodges. The government has dispatched an emergency team of medical personnel, engineers and technicians to assess the damage. Mozambique's national weather agency INAM said the weakened storm was headed northwards toward the port city of Beira, where its outer edges struck on Friday. Officials fear it may take its rains onward toward the Zambezi river basin, where several weeks of severe flooding has already displaced more than 120,000 people. "It's no longer a tropical cyclone now, it's a tropical depression meaning it has weakened but still accompanied by heavy rains ... it has winds of between 60 and 80 kilometres per hour", INAM spokesman Helder Sueia told Reuters. Sueia said the storm unearthed trees and blew off rooftops in Beira's densely populated surbub of Pontagea on Friday. "It's still taking the same direction and it's not as powerful as it was a few hours ago ... but the rains can still impact on the flooding situation," he said. Officials and humanitarian agencies are already battling to keep tens of thousands of flood refugees in central Mozambique supplied with food and fresh water. The former Portuguese colony, rising from a devastating 16 year political conflict, saw its worst disaster on record in 2000-2001 when a series of cyclones compounded widespread flooding in southern and central parts of the country, killing 700 people and driving close to half a million from their homes.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=10015&cat=dis&lang=eng

[Laidback Al]

Re: Powerful cyclone hits flood-ravaged Mozambique

satellite image of the storms.