Mozambique: Storm Ana was crueller to Tete than Cyclone Idai – Lusa

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Mozambique: Storm Ana was crueller to Tete than Cyclone Idai – Lusa

5:45 CAT | 28 Jan 2022

Photo: André Catueira / Lusa

Tropical Depression Ana, which hit Mozambique this week, was “much more violent” than Cyclone Idai in 2019, at least in Chingodzi, Tete’s most populous neighbourhood, in the assessment of victims.

Idai was one of the most violent cyclones in the southern hemisphere since reliable meteorological records began, but Chingodzi was harder hit this time, survivors have told Lusa.

In an as-yet unfinished tally, Storm Ana has already claimed at least 20 lives in Mozambique, six of them in Tete.

The Revuboé river, which delimits Chingodzi, devastated hundreds of houses and agricultural fields, now a sea of mud from which Trinital Amade, a peasant from Moatize, is trying to recover corn from a vegetable garden.

“This water was very violent, worse than in 2019,” he tells Lusa as he returns for the first time after the flood.

In his agricultural field, he tries to disentangle mud, reeds, power poles and electrical conductors dumped by the storm.

His machamba is just metres from the place where vehicles of a government delegation were washed away, and not far from where the body of the Tete district administrator José Mandere was found.

On the other bank of the river, in Nhakumbi, Anastácia Nicolau recalls that in 2019 the current did not flood her house – built atop a termite nest for elevation.

But this time, she was only able to save her daughter and a folder of essential documents.

“Even a big man” would not be able to withstand the current, Anastácia recalls, referring to the fishermen and canoeists who tried to help people, and like the military man who failed to survive the fury of the waters.

“That water came with a lot of pressure. It started in the Revuboé river, and came in waves, with wrecked houses and people running ahead to save themselves,” she says.

Domestic worker Carolina Paulo, who also has harsh memories of Cyclone Idai, says the force of Storm Ana was worse than anyone could have imagined.

“The water dragged people away,” she says, from the shelter of a Red Cross tent in the courtyard of the Industrial Institute of Tete.

According to the United Nations, between 2016 and 2021, Mozambique faced two major droughts and eight tropical storms, including major cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019, which in a six-week period affected 2.5 million people.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in Mozambique’s memory: 714 people died, including 648 victims of the two biggest cyclones ever to hit the country.

According to the ‘Inform’ disaster risk assessment tool, Mozambique ranks ninth out of 191 countries in terms of vulnerability to hazards, exposure to risks and lack of responsiveness.

Source: Lusa