1,000 feared dead after cyclone in Mozambique
Mozambique's death toll is already at 84 after a cyclone tore through the region over the weekend, and the country's president says it'll only get much, much worse.
Cyclone Idai brought devastating rainfall and flooding to southeast Africa, killing 122 people even in the days before it made landfall Thursday night, per NPR. It then moved inland to wipe out Zimbabwe and Malawi, leaving at least 215 people dead in total and hundreds more missing as extreme flooding continues.
The devastation was at its peak in Beira, Mozambique, where the storm made landfall and destroyed about 90 percent of the city of 500,000, The Associated Press reports via the Red Cross. Beira's electricity, roads, communications systems, and airport have shut down, and now, flooding has taken over the city. Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi predicts that more than 1,000 people could have already died in the storm, he told state radio on Monday.
We made it to #Beira. Coming in by helicopter we saw significant damage, barely any houses seemed intact, power lines and trees are down, many parts are flooding. What we hear that the situation outside the city is even worse #cycloneIdai @ifrc @IFRCAfrica @CruzVermelhaMOZ pic.twitter.com/dVGsHhyviv
— Caroline Haga (@hagacaroline) March 17, 2019
After an initial round of pre-landfall flooding, another 48 people died in Malawi and Mozambique, per U.N. reports. Zimbabwe says 89 people have died in the flooding so far, but a member of parliament told NPR the number will likely only grow. At least 1.5 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by the storm, the Red Cross estimates.