Mozambique: Flights cancelled as storm approaches centre region

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Flights cancelled as storm approaches centre region

5:35 CAT | 29 Dec 2020

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) on Tuesday announced the cancellation of nine flights in the coming days due to the tropical storm that is approaching the centre of Mozambique, the company said in a press release.

The cancelled flights linked the Mozambican capital of Maputo to Tete, Quelimane, Beira and Nampula on Wednesday and Thursday and, according to the company, should be reprogrammed as soon as the storm passes.

“LAM is making efforts to reschedule the affected flights, reallocate and contact passengers,” the note added.

Mozambique’s National Meteorological Institute issued an alert about a tropical storm, which is already in the Mozambique channel, developing to the point of a severe tropical storm (cyclone) and reaching the Mozambican coast on Wednesday, particularly the provinces of Zambézia and Sofala, in the centre of the country.

The storm is expected to hit the city of Beira, Sofala province, on Wednesday at 5 a.m., with winds of between 90 and 100 kilometres per hour.

“In this system, the winds are weaker than those of Idai [a cyclone that hit central Mozambique in 2019, causing 604 deaths and more than 1.8 million people affected], but the systems that have weaker winds bring a lot of rainfall,” said Acácio Tembe, spokesman for the National Institute of Meteorology, calling for the affected regions to strengthen the resilience capacity of their homes and infrastructures.

Between October and April, Mozambique is affected by cyclonic winds from the Indian Ocean and by floods originating in southern African watersheds, in addition to droughts that almost always affect some parts of the country’s south.