Cyclone caused at least four deaths in Beira – AIM

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Cyclone caused at least four deaths in Beira – AIM

6:07 CAT | 25 Jan 2021

Photo: Lusa

Four people are known to have died when cyclone Eloise hit the central Mozambican city of Beira on Saturday morning, according to a preliminary assessment of the damage by the city’s mayor, Daviz Simango, speaking to the independent television station, STV.

All the victims died when the walls of their flimsy houses collapsed on top of them. Further loss of life was avoided because the Municipal Council took the precaution of evacuating some of the most flood-prone neighbourhoods, such as Praia Nova.

Hundreds of residents spent the night of the storm sleeping in schools, and returned to their damaged homes on Sunday morning.

Many roads in the city were flooded, and as a matter of precaution the electricity company, EDM, cut off power to the city, to avoid anyone being electrocuted by fallen cables. Roofs were blown off houses, but the damage was much less than that done by Cyclone Idai, a much more powerful storm which hit Beira in March 2019.

On Sunday, EDM announced that it had restored power to most of the areas hit by the cyclone. In addition to Beira, these included Dondo, Nhamatanda and Gorongosa districts in Sofala province, the Inchope administrative post in Manica, Inhassunge and Luabo in Zambezia, and parts of Vilanculo and Inhassoro districts in Inhambane.

EDM said that work on the ground is continuing to re-establish power supplies to other affected areas.

As a safety measure, the Port of Beira closed all its operational and administrative activities on Thursday, as the cyclone approached, and ordered all vessels to be removed from the quays. But, on Sunday, as promised, the port reopened. It has not yet said whether the storm caused any significant damage to port installations.

At the Beira fishing port, three vessels belonging to a Taiwanese fishing company disobeyed the instructions to move away from the quays. This was rash, for when Eloise struck it sank these three fishing boats. The fishing port management says that the company must now pay to refloat the vessels, and ensure that access to the port is not impeded.

The worst hit district in Sofala was Buzi. Severe flooding on the Buzi river meant that much of the district was already under water before the cyclone struck. Two people are known to have died, and many hundreds of families have been stranded by the flood waters and can only be rescued by boat or helicopter.

Source: AIM