Cyclone hit millions across Africa in record disaster: U.N.

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS MARCH 19, 2019 / 5:52 AM / UPDATED 14 MINUTES AGO

Cyclone hit millions across Africa in record disaster: U.N.

MAPUTO/HARARE (Reuters) - Cyclone winds and floods that swept across southeastern Africa affected more than 2.6 million people and could rank as one of the worst weather-related disasters recorded in the southern hemisphere, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.

Rescue crews are still struggling to reach victims five days after Cyclone Idai raced in at speeds of up to 170 kph (105 mph) from the Indian Ocean into Mozambique, then its inland neighbors Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Aid groups said many survivors were trapped in remote areas, surrounded by wrecked roads, flattened buildings and submerged villages, while the Red Cross said at least 400,000 people had been made homeless in central Mozambique alone.

“This is the worst humanitarian crisis in Mozambique’s history,” said Jamie LeSueur, who is leading rescue efforts in Beira for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-cyclone/cyclone-hit-millions-across-africa-in-record-disaster-u-n-idUSKCN1R00Z3

[Squinch]

1. Oh, God. What a horror. 400,000 homeless in only one area, and this hit a huge area.

Thank you for this story, Eugene.

[YOHABLO]

2. Is it common for cyclones to hit the African continent? We never hear of this. Maybe I'm wrong.

[nitpicker]

3. Not common, but not unknown either

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cyclones_in_Mozambique

((According to this, there have been about a dozen events affecting Mozambique since the 1990s, but Idai appears to have been the worst of the lot.))


It's much rarer in South Africa:

http://www.weathersa.co.za/learning/weather-questions/48-which-cyclones-have-affected-sa-in-the-last-30-years

I think the comparative level of Western interest in African countries is why there is little publicity about cyclone impacts in Africa.