Cyclone Freddy has caused five deaths in the city of Quelimane, central Mozambique, according to preliminary information from the mayor, Manuel Araújo, who describes a scenario of destruction.
“We have at least five deaths,” according to preliminary information provided by the mayor, who is still trying to reconfirm the data, despite the difficulties experienced on the ground, as there is no power or telecommunications.
According to Manuel Araújo, two people died in landslides of precarious houses, other two were caught by the fall of a tree and the fifth mortal victim has been surprised by a boat thrown out of the Bons Sinais river.
In one of Quelimane’s streets, residents carry one of the fatal victims, covered by blankets, in heavy rain.
They brave the weather, saying they are taking him to the morgue at the city hospital.
“I had never seen anything like it,” Manuel Araújo tells Lusa, referring that the strength of the storm was so strong that the waters of the river “threw an entire boat on top of the fishing port pier bridge.”
Throughout the municipality and its surroundings, the roofs of buildings were torn off, walls and fences toppled, electricity poles and trees lay on the ground and countless precarious houses crumbled with the intensity of the rain and wind.
The city hospital lost its roof, leaving several patients in the rain, who have since been transferred to covered spaces, describes the mayor.
Quelimane is built over “a swamp area, there are no elevated areas” and “even the centres that had been prepared are flooded”, so the schools are the only safe places that can house many people, he said.
Other residents are wading through the rubble in the outlying districts, trying to salvage what they can.
The peak of the storm “happened around 8pm” on Saturday (6pm in Lisbon), “that’s when a lot of houses fell down”, says Justino Magro, from the Bairro do Aeroporto.
Now, in the middle of the precarious house he built, he picks up the remains of his furniture and belongings.
Aira Oliveira confirms the time of the worst phase of the storm: “After 7pm we saw a lot of things flying.”
“We didn’t sleep at all, it’s a tragic thing and we need a big help,” describes the resident.
Lourenço Ribeiro, another resident, points to the strong wind as the main culprit, after the heavy rain that had been falling since Friday.
“It was very windy, so much so that it took off almost all the roofs of the houses,” he highlights.
A warehouse of the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD) that stored 40 tons of food for humanitarian aid also lost part of its roof and water is now threatening to spoil the bags of groceries.
The authorities recommend that the population remain in sheltered areas.
INGD has opened reception sites and has issued warnings for the population to get out of precarious houses and riverside areas, which are usually subject to flooding.
Cyclone Freddy has now lost strength and is now a tropical storm, but it is still expected to cause heavy rain until Wednesday in central Mozambique, so the threat of flooding prevails.
This is the second time the storm has hit the country, after a first hit on 24 February, causing 10 deaths due to adverse conditions over several days.
Lusa
