Cyclone Freddy will return to sea after hitting Malawi and Mozambique

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — After sweeping through Mozambique and Malawi since late last week, killing hundreds and displacing thousands, Cyclone Freddy is expected to move inland on Wednesday, bringing some relief to areas hard hit by torrential downpours and strong winds.

The cyclone has killed at least 199 people in Malawi’s southern region and in and around Blantyre, the country’s financial heartland, according to local authorities. In neighboring Mozambique, at least 20 deaths have been reported since the storm made landfall in the port town of Quelimane on Saturday evening.

“There are many victims, both injured and missing or dead, and the number will only increase in the coming days,” said Guilherme Botelho, emergency project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Blantyre, Malawi. , which is fighting a cholera epidemic, there could be a resurgence of the disease, “especially since vaccination coverage in Blantyre is very low”, he added.

The NGO has suspended programs to protect its staff from flash floods and landslides, but is supporting emergency operations at a local hospital.

According to forecasts from a regional storm monitoring center on Reunion Island, Freddy will set sail again late Wednesday afternoon. It is not known whether the cyclone, which will be the longest on record, will dissipate or move away from land.

“Even wealthy countries with advanced democracies would not have been prepared for the level of destruction caused by this cyclone. Malawi has a disaster management agency that prepares and plans for the challenges of the contemporary climate crisis,” said Kim Yi Dionne from the University of California, Riverside. “It is likely that we will hear of many more casualties…in the days and weeks to come.”

Cyclone Freddy has been wreaking havoc in southern Africa since late February. Last month it hit Mozambique and the islands of Madagascar and Reunion as it crossed the Indian Ocean.

Freddy’s formed near Australia in early February. The United Nations weather agency has assembled a panel of experts to determine whether the meteor broke the longest-lasting record in history, set by Hurricane John, which lasted 31 days in 1994.

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Kabukuru brought from Mombasa, Kenya. Associated Press writers Alexandre Nhampossa and Tom Gould in Maputo, Mozambique, contributed to this report.

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