Mozambique: One cyclone death reported in Manica

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Mozambique: One cyclone death reported in Manica

9:10 CAT | 04 Jan 2021

Photo: O País

One person died, and 68 families lost their homes when cyclone Chalane swept across the central Mozamnbican province of Manica on Wednesday.

The death occurred in the 16th June neighbourhood of the provincial capital, Chimoio, where a man was electrocuted because of the electricity cables that the storm had brought down.

The families were made homeless when the high winds brought by Chalane knocked down 48 houses. Several schools and hospitals in Chimoio were also damaged by the winds and heavy rains.

The Secretary of State for Manica, Edson Macuacua, gave a preliminary account of the storm damage at a meeting of the Provincial Emergency Operational Committee. He said that several parts of the province were without power, because the storm had knocked down electricity pylons. Several streets in Chimoio were flooded, and were temporarily impassable.

The rains brought by Chalane raised the level of the major rivers in the province, such as the Pungoe, the Buzi and the Revue. The Pungoe is already above flood alert level further downstream, at Mafambusse, in Sofala province, but there does not seem to be any immediate threat of flooding in the Buzi basin.

Macuacua praised the efforts made to avoid loss of life. “If we had not been united in preventing the worst, I believe the damage would have been greater”, he said.

In Sofala province, four people injured during the passage of the cyclone received medical care in Beira Central Hospital, but there were no reports of any deaths. Those injured suffered broken limbs when walls and roofs collapsed on top of them.

The peak winds brought by Chalane were measured at 104 kilometres an hour, shortly after the cyclone made landfall just north of Beira early on Wednesday morning. Cyclones weaken over land, and by the time Chalane left Mozambique and entered Zimbabwe, it had largely dissipated.

Source: AIM