Cyclone Freddy to move into Mozambique this week

– Authorities in Mozambique have called for an immediate evacuation of people as dams are expected to cause floods in  Maputo and Gaza, in the coming days

John Cassim

HARARE – An Intense Tropical Cyclone Freddy is moving towards Madagascar where it is expected to hit the east coast on Tuesday 21 February before landing in Mozambique a few days later.

Freddy is a particularly powerful and compact tropical system that generates extreme winds near its centre estimated at 250 km/h, making it a very dangerous system. 

Effects:

Freddy represents a significant flood risk for Madagascar as soils are already saturated in central parts of the island from the impact of Cyclone Cheneso, which brought torrential rains in late January and affected over 90,000 people, leaving 33 people dead while 20 people are still missing. 

Approximately, about 34,000 people are still homeless and in Mozambique 89,090 people have been affected by extreme weather events since the beginning of the rainy season. 

Over 15,00 people are currently displaced due to the floods in Southern Mozambique alone. 

Mozambican authorities have issued warnings on expected heavy rains over the next days, with Freddy expected to make landfall on the evening of 23 February 

On Thursday, the Southern Regional Water Administration (ARA-SUL) called for an immediate evacuation of people in the southern part of the country, as dams are expected to cause floods in  Maputo and Gaza, in the coming days.

According to the Mozambican National Institute of Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, the heavy rains that have fallen in the southern part of the country in recent weeks have killed nine people and impacted 39,225 people.

Meanwhile the Meteorological Services Department in Zimbabwe (MSD) has urged citizens not to panic as Freddy is showing different trajectories, with a mean trajectory that it might cross Madagascar into the Mozambique channel.