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Authorities are still coming to grips with the scale of damage from Cyclone Freddy in Malawi and Mozambique since last Saturday, with more than 370 people confirmed dead, several hundred still missing and tens of thousands displaced.
On Friday, Malawian authorities said Freddy had killed at least 326 people, with 200 still missing. There are hundreds of evacuation centers set up across the country for survivors. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera announced a 14-day national mourning period on Thursday.
In Mozambique, authorities said at least 53 had died since Saturday, with another 50,000 still displaced. It is expected that the death toll in both countries will continue to rise.
Cyclone Freddy made landfall late Wednesday after making landfall twice in Mozambique and then Malawi over the weekend and caused widespread damage in several areas, including Malawi’s financial capital, Blantyre.
“Many areas are inaccessible, limiting the movement of assessment and humanitarian teams and life-saving supplies,” said Paul Turnbull, director of the World Food Program in Malawi. “The true extent of the damage will only be revealed when the evaluation is complete.”
Both countries had experienced cholera outbreaks before the cyclone and there were fears that the floods could increase the spread of water-borne diseases. Mozambique also experienced Freddy’s first battering and flooding earlier in the year.
Scientists say that human-caused climate change has increased cyclone activity, making it wetter, more intense and more frequent.
Cyclone Freddy has devastated southern Africa since late February, when it hit Mozambique, Madagascar and Reunion. Then return to the mainland after regaining strength through the Mozambique Channel.
Freddy first developed near Australia in early February and the World Meteorological Organization has convened a panel of experts to determine whether it has broken the record for the longest cyclone in recorded history.
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