JOHANNESBURG (AP) – The Mozambican port city of Beira breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday as Cyclone Eloise caused less damage than feared when it passed, but the danger of flooding remained in a region still recovering from a devastating cyclone. two years.
“We all feel that it was much less than we expected,” said Kobus Botha, head of agricultural and logistics company Servir. “If you remember in (Cyclone) Idai, we all said, ‘It’s not too bad,’ but 24 hours later the big waters came.” Idai in 2019 killed several hundred people and displaced over 100,000.
Prior to the arrival of the cyclone, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned that at least 100,000 people would be affected.
“Heavy rainfall will persist for more than 24 hours,” he said. “The amount of rain will be enough to flood the lowlands of Beira and Buzi. Additional flooding may occur a few days later as the accumulated water flows into the Pungue and Buzi rivers in Zimbabwe. ”
In a more likely scenario, the IFRC expects 400,000 people to be affected, as “torrential rains immediately flood the lowlands of Beira, Buzi, Nhamatanda, Chibabava and Sussundenga. Water accumulation in Zimbabwe will flow downstream, extending the flooded areas for several days. ”
The eye of the storm passed over Beira before dawn on Saturday, after it had already brought heavy rains in the province of Zambezia and its capital, Quelimane. The cyclone lost its strength after landing, but removed the electricity and communications infrastructure in Beira, a city of about half a million people and the surrounding areas.
“The Vodacom network has experienced a temporary outage … disrupting communication for users throughout the city of Beira and in certain districts in Sofala province,” Vodacom said in a statement.
The electricity company EDM said it turned off the power as a precaution after the water entered a station in Beira, local outlet Carta de Mocambique reported.
“Looking from here, in the distance, you can see around the missing roof tiles here and there,” said Ben Van Wyk, a resident of Beira. “But the mayor (Daviz Simango) was a master of training. The whole of Beira put sandbags on the roofs yesterday “, while the municipal authorities closed their eyes on taking the sand from the beach.
Eloise is the second cyclone to hit central Mozambique this season, after Chalane in December. But from Idai, “people now know what a cyclone is and take it seriously,” Van Wyk said.