Tropical Cyclone Eloise hits Mozambique
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Tropical Cyclone Eloise made landfall early morning on 23 January near Mozambique s city of Beira, causing widespread damage and flooding on a long swathe of coastline and impacting an area still recovering from Cyclone Idai. Neighbouring southern African nations are also being hit by torrential rainfall and flooding from Eloise, which weakened to a tropical storm after landfall.
Tropical Cyclone Eloise made landfall at Category 1 strength, with winds of 140 km/h and gusts up to 160 km/h, according to Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) and WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Réunion (MeteoFrance). Beira received 250 mm of rain in 24 hours, according to INAM. Other areas that were flooded ahead of Eloise’s landfall also received additional heavy rains.
8,300 are displaced
160 classrooms & 26 health centres damaged
142,000 hectares of crops flooded
⬆176,000 people affected, according to preliminary Government data. pic.twitter.com/XdaVhaSog1
Preliminary figures indicate that at least six people died and 12 injured, but the number may rise as more information becomes available. The storm also damaged more than 8,800 houses and at least 26 health centres, and disrupted power and communication links.
According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 176,000 people have been affected, including several thousand displaced. On ground and aerial assessments are ongoing.
Jens Laerke, an OCHA spokesperson told journalists at a media briefing in Geneva that the most urgent humanitarian needs identified so far include food, tents, drinking water, hygiene kits, COVID-19 prevention materials, mosquito nets, and blankets. He also called for more resources to fund response.
The three hardest-hit provinces in South Africa were Mpumalanga, Limpopo and northern KwaZulu-Natal, Dlamini-Zuma said.
Children
Two children are confirmed to have died - in Limpopo, a five-year-old boy drowned while crossing a river, while a 14-year-old boy died in KwaZulu-Natal.
Mpumalanga Cogta department head Sam Ngubane said two people were possibly missing after being swept away by floodwaters, but this had yet to be confirmed.
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Limpopo Cogta MEC Basikopo Makamu added that bridges were washed away, but that the situation was under control. Makamu said uprooted trees had already been cleared, adding that local government officials would visit the area on Wednesday to assess the damage.
An Environmental Crisis in Mozambique
The wrath of Cyclone Eloise over the weekend in central Mozambique left 5,000 houses destroyed or damaged and almost 7,000 people displaced in an area already battered by two deadly cyclones in 2019.
Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario visited the Sofala province on Monday, calling on locals residing in areas at high risk of further flooding to evacuate to safety.
He addressed the locals in the area by way of an interpreter. It s necessary to create the conditions up here, conditions to have houses live well here, to have farms to produce here, to have drinking water and for the farms here.