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Cyclone Idai causes catastrophic damage in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi
Tens of thousands of people are still trapped by floodwaters as rescuers in Mozambique race against the clock to bring essential supplies and help them to safety. Cyclone Idai made landfall near the Mozambican port city of Beira on 15th March. It brought winds of 170 km/h (105 mph) and torrential rains, resulting in catastrophic floods that devastated parts of Mozambique. In Beira, airborne debris, including sheet metal from roofs, caused numerous injuries. The cyclone then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, flattening buildings and threatening millions of lives. Cyclone Idai is already considered one of the destructive cyclones (the name for hurricanes in the Indian Ocean) ever to strike the Southern Hemisphere.
The Buzi and Pungwe rivers in central Mozambique overtopped their banks, causing whole villages to disappear beneath their surging waters. Satellite images (such as this one, left) reveal the vast scale of flooding in Mozambique, including the appearance of a new inland lake measuring about 125 by 25 kilometres (80 by 15 miles). An area of about 3000 sq km (1864 sq miles) is now under water. In some places the water is six metres (19 feet) deep.
At least 600,000 people have been affected. Medical agencies warn that the shortage of food and clean drinking water is increasing the threat of diseases such as cholera. Rescue teams have been dropping high-energy biscuits, water purification tablets and other supplies to stranded people. In many instances, victims have had to be abandoned to save others in more dire need.
Around 15,000 people in and around Beira who sought refuge on rooftops and trees are still waiting to be rescued a week after the cyclone struck. People are also trying to avoid snakes that were swept up in the floodwaters. Beira itself is a scene of widespread destruction, with large numbers of fallen trees and power lines, shattered windows, devastated buildings and roads and a crippled phone network. Crops in the surrounding land have been ruined. An estimated 200,000 people in Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe are in need of urgent food aid.
More than 750 people are confirmed dead in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe so far, but the toll is expected to rise steeply.