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The city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest, fell into ruin again. The force of Cyclone Eloise tore off roofs, spun boats and left streets and several neighborhoods completely flooded. At least three people have died and some 200,000 people are likely to be affected by the floods in the coming days in Mozambique.
Almost two years after Cyclone Idai swept through that coastal city, where 62,000 houses were destroyed and around 1,000 lives were claimed, Beira is again affected.
Of the fatalities, two were struck by collapsed house walls in the Munhava neighborhood. The other was hit by windblown railway material.
“The scene is of great destruction. The cyclone devastated many structures, the walls of many houses fell and the roofs blew up,” Nelson Moda, 37, head of the Sant’Egido community in the province of Sofala, told JN this Saturday. .
This cyclone, which entered Beira at dawn and passed through central Mozambique, was much longer than Idai.
The strong winds, which were going 160 kilometers per hour, took everything they found ahead. The rains, which still persist, left the houses with more than half a meter of water.
Despite the preparation of the population, which learned from the past and reinforced the windows and roofs, Eloise once again left entire families homeless. Many of them had not yet finished rebuilding the houses, devastated in 2019.
Added to the meteorological disaster is the covid-19 pandemic. “Right now there are already many people in the accommodation centers without masks, and much less physical distance. This can lead to a high rate of positive cases of covid-19, which has already been fatal, ”said Nelson, recalling that it is also necessary to prevent the appearance of cholera and malaria.
Uncalculated losses
Also in the Búzi district, the damage was great. The populations were once again surrounded by water and it was necessary to resort to the boats available in the district, including private ones, to remove people, reports the Mozambique Red Cross on its Twitter page.
Although the impact of this cyclone was less than that of Idai, flash floods are expected off the coasts of Sofala and Zambezia provinces.
At the moment, authorities are still investigating the damage caused by the cyclone, a task hampered by power and telecommunications outages in many parts of the city.
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