Cyclone Freddy enters Mozambique Cannel – AIM report

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Cyclone Freddy enters Mozambique Cannel – AIM report

9:45 CAT | 23 Feb 2023

Image: Meteo France, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, at 10 a.m. local time / 8 a.m. Mozambican time.

As forecast, tropical cyclone Freddy left Madagascar and entered the Mozambique Channel at around midday on Wednesday.

According to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC), the cyclone is heading almost due west towards the Mozambican coast, and will make landfall on Friday morning near the town of Vilanculo, in Inhambane province.

Its passage over Madagascar slowed Freddy down. Its windspeed when it hits Mozambique is forecast at 60 knots (111 kilometres an hour).

According to Agostinho Vilanculos, the head of Water Resource Management, in the Ministry of Public Works, the cyclone could affect around 700,000 people. The areas likely to suffer most from Freddy’s impact are rural, and are not densely populated. Over 30,000 hectares of crops could be lost, said Vilanculos.

Vilanculos thought there was unlikely to be large scale flooding in Inhambane. There are no significant rivers near the Inhambane coast. The river basins that do exist “are like a lake, and store water”, he said.

To assist people affected by the cyclone, as well as those already suffering from catastrophic flooding in Maputo province, the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), urgently needs tents, mattresses, blankets, water purifiers and foodstuffs.

More than 40,000 people are currently living in accommodation centres set up in the wake of the floods in Maputo city and province.