Mozambique: Ana dissipating but still causing heavy rains – AIM report

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Mozambique: Ana dissipating but still causing heavy rains – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 26 Jan 2022

Photo: DW

The tropical cyclone Ana, which on Monday made landfall in Angoche district, in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, is now weakening and tracking westwards where it is expected to affect the north of Zimbabwe and parts of Zambia, according to Mozambique’s National Meteorology Institute (INAM).

The head of INAM Weather Forecasting and Analysis, Acacio Tembe, told AIM that Ana is gradually dissipating, but will cause a heavy downpour of over 200 millimetres of rain in the western province of Tete. The central provinces of Manica and Sofala provinces will also record more than 100 millimetres of rain.

“Ana is now lessening and even its winds are expected to drop to below 30 knots (about 56 kilometres an hour)”, Tembe said. “That intensity is not so destructive to properties and other infrastructures,”

When it hit the Nampula coast on Monday afternoon, the wind speed was 45 knots, but soon fell to 35 knots, as the storm moved inland.

However, in Nampula Ana’s cyclonic winds caused a swathe of destruction in coastal districts such as Larde, Moma and Angoche, ripping the roofs off schools and other facilities.

Over the last few hours, the number of classrooms affected in the province since the start of the rainy season has risen from 192 to 198. The education authorities have only six school tents (equivalent to 12 classrooms), kits of school material and 2,000 rolls of tarpaulin canvases that will soon be handed to districts such as Memba, Erati, Meconta and Mossuril.

The Provincial Director of Education, Mariamo Agostinho, declared that the destruction of school facilities has so far affected 27,938 pupils and 465 teachers. She said that these numbers are not definitive.

“We launched a survey which will give us an accurate data, but we need 96 school tents, and 5,000 kits of students’ resources, so as to immediately answer the demands of the start of classes”, she said,

The health authorities in Nampula said that they dispatched a wide range of medications for emergency situations in every district prone to flooding.

Some UN agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross and NGOs have provided resources to the government and pledged unconditional support to help the country deal with the damage caused by the cyclone.

On Monday, Mozambique Airlines (LAM) cancelled all its flights to Nampula, and other areas at risk from the cyclone. It is not yet clear when they will resume.

Source: AIM