Mozambique rescue teams struggle to save thousands

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/20/cyclone-idai-rising-flood-levels-threaten-mozambique-disaster-relief-effort

Mozambique rescue teams struggle to save thousands

Workers appeal for more helicopters as flood waters keep rising after Cyclone Idai

Ruth Maclean West Africa correspondent and Peter Beaumont in Maputo

Wed 20 Mar 2019 18.46 GMT First published on Wed 20 Mar 2019 14.46 GMT

Rescue teams in Mozambique are struggling to reach the thousands of people stranded on roofs and in trees and urgently need more helicopters and boats as post-cyclone flood waters continue to rise.

Mozambique, which was hit by Cyclone Idai over the weekend, has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help.

Rescue workers, military personnel and volunteers are rushing to save thousands of Mozambicans before flood levels rise further, but with four helicopters, a handful of boats and extremely difficult conditions, have only been able to save about 413 so far.
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More than 400 sq kilometres (150 sq miles) in the region are flooded, according to satellite images taken by the EU, and in some places the water is six metres (19ft) deep. At least 600,000 people are affected, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ranging from those whose lives are in immediate danger to those who need other kinds of aid.

With heavy rains still falling in the region, floodwaters are predicted to rise in the coming days, meaning more people will need to be rescued; Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, warned there could be waves up to eight metres high.

Emergency teams are shifting their focus from rescue to delivering aid and evacuating Buzi, a town of 200,000 people that is expected to be partially submerged in the coming surge. Aerial images released by Mozambique’s disaster relief agency, the INGC, showed survivors packed together on top of high buildings in Buzi district, which is the worst affected area.

The magnitude of the disaster is “almost unexplainable”, with water as far as the eye can see, exhausted and hungry people trapped on exposed rooftops for days and mothers throwing their babies into rescue boats but having to stay behind in the trees they are holding on to, according to a rescue worker in the devastated port city of Beira.
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He said four helicopters were currently involved in rescue operations, with capacities of between four and 35 people per trip. Workers hoped to rescue 1,000 people on Wednesday, but bad weather meant they could only save 170.
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Humanitarian organisations are deploying to Beira, but because large areas are underwater and cut off, with communications down for a fifth day, no power and the main road washed away, getting supplies and staff in and information out is extremely difficult. The airport was badly damaged but is working again and some commercial flights are running from the capital, Maputo.
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[allgood33]

1. We should be trying to send help to Beira instead of contemplating invading Venezuela.

You can't tell me we and some other scoundrals didn't hack the grid in Venezuaels. Very much a John Bolton move.