Cyclone Kenneth had winds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.

The post Mozambique Just Got Hit by Another Massive Cyclone first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Cylone Idai in Mozambique first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

An aerial view taken in Beira, Mozambique, on April 1, 2019 shows the Picoco refugee camp where 2,000 displaced people are looking for shelter.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The death toll from the cyclone that ripped into southern Africa last month is now above 1,000, while the number of cholera cases among survivors has risen above 4,000.

The United Nations has described Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi nearly a month ago, as “one of the deadliest storms on record in the southern hemisphere.”

Zimbabwe’s information minister on Tuesday said the death toll in that country has risen to 344. Mozambique has reported 602 deaths and Malawi at least 59.

Zimbabwe’s efforts are now “confined to recovery of the deceased” and the government will send pathologists to Mozambique to help identify bodies, said Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa. An unknown number of Zimbabweans were washed down mountainsides into Mozambique, which also has turned from search and recovery efforts to relief work providing food and shelter to survivors.

Zimbabwe, whose economy is badly struggling, said it needs $612 million to assist survivors and has appealed for international support.

A final death toll is yet to be established and might never be known.

A cholera outbreak among survivors was declared in Mozambique on March 27 and had led to 4,072 cases and seven deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to government figures.

Malaria a growing concern

Most of the cases of the acute diarrhea disease have been in Mozambique’s hard-hit port city of Beira, where running water recently was restored. The system, however, reaches just 60% of the population of roughly 500,000.

More than 745,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine have been distributed since the vaccination campaign launched last week, the government said. Cholera is spread via contaminated water or food and can kill within hours if untreated. Treatment is relatively easy with dehydration and antibiotics.

Now malaria is a growing concern as floodwaters continue to recede in parts of the sodden region. More than 7,500 cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been reported, the government said.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/04/10/cyclone-idai-death-toll_a_23709594/

The post Cyclone Idai Death Toll Now Above 1,000 As Thousands Of Cholera Cases Are Reported first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A cyclone which struck southern Africa has affected almost three million people, of whom nearly 500,000 have been driven from their homes, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique on March 15, unleashing hurricane-force winds and rain that flooded much of the centre of the country and then battered eastern Zimbabwe and Malawi.

More than 700 people have been killed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe alone and hundreds are missing, according to an AFP toll compiled from figures provided by governments and some UN agencies.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said roughly 3,125 square kilometres (1,200 square miles) of land had been swamped, and nearly three million people across the three countries had been affected.

“Close to 500,000 have been displaced,” the agency said in a briefing note.

In New York, UN humanitarian aid chief Mark Lowcock launched an appeal to provide Mozambique with $282 million (250 million euros) of relief aid over the next three months.

Similar campaigns will shortly be launched for Zimbabwe and Malawi, he said.

Hunger

Survivors of the cyclone began receiving medicine, food and tents Tuesday as floodwaters receded, enabling a detailed picture of the crisis to emerge for the first time.

In the small village of Bejaga, some 150 survivors were hungry.

In the past week relief workers have dropped off “just a cup of (vitamin fortified) soya per family. It’s way too little,” said peasant farmer Francisco Lopez. “We are waiting,” he told AFP.

He had salvaged a few maize cobs in the mud and he sifted through them grain by grain, looking for any edible morsel. He had dried the food on a tarpaulin, but much of it was rotten after nearly two weeks under water.

“We really have nothing to eat, we have received almost nothing in aid,” he said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Sebastian Rhodes Stampa said Monday that 30 aid missions were flying in while others were going by road “so we can really deliver volume.”

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) chief Antonio Vitorino cautioned, though, that food shortages were likely for months to come because of destruction to farmland.

“Given its devastating impact, Cyclone Idai could rank as the worst disaster to hit the region in decades,” he said in a statement.

An estimated half a million hectares (1.2 million acres) of crops have been destroyed, much of which had been ready to harvest, and loss of livestock is likely to be severe.

Health peril

Stagnant water, decomposing bodies and lack of sanitation in overcrowded shelters in Mozambique could create breeding grounds for cholera, typhus and malaria, experts say.

The WHO says it is withdrawing 900,000 doses of cholera vaccines from a global stockpile to help forestall an epidemic.

The government has already identified some suspected cases of cholera, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Elhadj As Sy, said.

“The worst thing is the children crying and looking for their parents… It is heartbreaking,” he said, adding that it remained unclear how many children may have been orphaned.

Medical services in the affected region were stretched even before the cyclone hit.

Beira hospital’s operating theatre sustained serious damage. As many as 17 health centres have lost their roofs, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

The South African military has deployed several aircraft to the affected area and an EU-funded WFP helicopter is supporting rescue and recovery efforts.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-displaced-southern-africa-cyclone.html

The post Up to 500,000 displaced by southern Africa cyclone first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Tens of thousands of people are still believed to need rescuing after the cyclone hit Mozambique’s port city of Beira on March 14 before moving inland.

At least 360 people have died in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, and 2.6 million people have been affected, the United Nations said, as Idai’s winds ripped apart homes, schools and medical centres.

Accompanying heavy rains have triggered floods, inundating swathes of farmland, while health services and clinics have broken down and water supplies have been damaged.

People from the town of Buzi unload at Beira Port, Mozambique, after being rescued from the flood waters. Thousands of people are still stranded after after Cyclone Idai hit the country last week

People walk on the flooded street of Buzi, central Mozambique, after the devastation cyclone which the country’s President fears may have killed as many as 1,000 people – amid fears that diseases could push the death toll even higher

People collect metal sheets from a damaged supermarket to re-build their destroyed houses following the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai in Beira

Medecins Sans Frontieres aid workers said people would resort to drinking water contaminated with waste and sewage as well as dead bodies which will be discovered as water levels recede.

The only reservoir with treated water has only one to two days of drinking water left, the charity’s James Kambaki said.

Another aid worker said: ‘With latrines having been washed away and sanitary systems disrupted, open defecation and the pollution of water sources is a major concern. These can lead to waterborne illnesses, such as cholera and typhoid.’

About 90 percent of the infrastructure in Beira city alone has been destroyed, said rescue workers, and rescue teams are battling to reach communities cut off due roads and bridges being washed away.

In Zimbabwe’s eastern mountainous province of Manicaland, aid workers from the charity Mercy Corps said they had begun distributing purified drinking water packets, hygiene and sanitation supplies.

Mildred Makore of Mercey Corps said populated areas such as Chimanimani town, were still cut off by road. With no power, hospitals had run out of fuel to operate back-up generators.

A woman from the Inhamudima area of Berea killing birds in order to feed her familyas a result of lack of food after cyclone Idai made landfall in Sofala Province

People walk is the standing water in a street on Friday in downtown Beira, Mozambique. Thousands of people are still stranded after after Cyclone Idai hit the country last week

A woman from the Inhamudima area of Berea washing her family’s clothes as flood waters recede after cyclone Idai made landfall in Sofala Province, central Mozambique

‘Both Chimanimani and Chipinge are malaria zones and with people sleeping outside, not having access to clean water sources and, once temperatures increase again, the potential for case numbers to rise is great,’ she said.

In Malawi, where almost 1 million people have been affected by floods, aid workers said they were worried about the spread of disease in some 170 makeshift camps where more than 125,000 people have sought refuge without sufficient toilets.

‘This may be the most devastating such disaster in the region’s history, and its damage can escalate quickly if we do not act immediately,’ said Concern Worldwide’s U.S. chief executive Colleen Kelly.

‘We must prevent a second wave of destruction from additional flooding, crop loss, hunger, and potential disease.’

Survivors of Cyclone Idai, listen to a volunteer from Mozambique Red Cross, after arriving to an evacuation centre in Beira, Mozambique, on Thursday

People from the town of Buzi unload from a boat at Beira Port after being rescued. The devastation in the city has sparked fears of diseases such as cholera

People from the isolated district of Buzi take shelter in the Samora M. Machel secondary school used as an evacuation center in Beira

People from the town of Buzi get off a boat in pouring weather at Beira Port as they escape the devastated coastal city

A woman carries salvaged metal sheeting amid the shattered city of Beira, Mozambique

Men play checkers beside a fallen tree leaning on a wall after the strong cyclone a week ago in Beira

The situation in Beira ‘boiling’ as residents suffered shortages of food, water and other essentials one week after a devastating cyclone, the head of a South African rescue operation said on Friday.

Connor Hartnady, rescue operations task force leader for Rescue South Africa, said residents of Beira – a low-lying port city of 500,000 people – were becoming fed up with shortages.

He also said a group of 60 people had been discovered trapped by flood water in an area north of Beira during a reconnaissance flight.

The storm’s torrential rains caused the Buzi and Pungwe rivers, whose mouths are in the Beira area, to burst their banks.

Roads into Beira were cut off by the storm, and most of the city remains without power.

Pedestrians walk on the edge of a collapsed bridge in Nhamatanda, about 60 miles west of the port city of Beira

People use makeshift boats to navigate the flooded areas after the passage of the cyclone Idai in Matarara, Sussudenga district, in Mozambique

An aerial view shows Beira, central Mozambique, on Wednesday, after the passage of cyclone Idai

The post Death toll from Cyclone Idai ‘could spiral past a thousand’ in Mozambique amid fears 500,000 survivors are at risk of fatal diseases and starving villagers resort to drinking from dirty puddles first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.