Cyclone Favio, sweeping in after wreaking havoc in Madagascar, made landfall at Vilankulo in Mozambique on Thursday morning.
Tshepho Ngobeni, marine forecaster at the South African Weather Service, told the Mail & Guardian Online at noon on Thursday that the storm had average wind speeds of about 176km/h, with gusts of up to 246km/h.
”It’s actually pouring; it’s severely pouring,” he said.
By midday on Thursday, Favio — a category-four cyclone — was moving north-west at about 14km/h and generating ”phenomenal” waves of up to 9m high.
Helder Sueia, chief forecaster in the national meteorological office, said officials in coastal districts were on alert and warnings had been issued in the Inhambane and Sofala provinces.
”It means the people have six hours before the impact of the cyclone in terms of strong winds and heavy rains that are already in place,” he said.
”It’s dangerous for people. They have to close their windows, doors and they have to look for safer places and avoid being under trees.”
Belarmino Chivambo, a spokesperson for the national disaster management institute, said residents of the vulnerable areas had been warned of the danger and appropriate measures were being taken ”to avoid any losses or dead people”.
”We have asked the people to close some schools, to stop the fishing on the coast,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Margie Toens, who lives on the beachfront in Vilankulo, south of the island of Bazaruto, told the M&G Online early on Thursday that the situation was ”horrible” and that trees were crashing down around her house.
Struggling to make herself heard over the driving wind, Toens said she had packed off her dogs to a friend in a safer area and that she had a ”backpack and emergency documents”.
About 80 000 Mozambicans living along the banks of the Zambezi have been left homeless and about 30 people killed since the start of the year as a result of incessant downpours.
Sofala was of the four provinces worst affected by the floods, along Tete, Zambezia and Manica.
Deluges in Mozambique in 2000 and 2001 claimed more than 700 lives.
The Southern African country’s peak rainfall season is from the end of February to early March.
Threat to children
The disaster-relief agency Save the Children warned on Wednesday that Cyclone Favio — as well as another cyclone that is still some way off — presented a serious threat to the lives of children.
The second cyclone is tracking the first one and is sufficiently well formed to be causing concern among disaster-relief agencies.
Save the Children called on international donors to be on alert for a second round of emergency assistance to Mozambique, where resources are already stretched to the limit.
Further destruction could leave more children without shelter, unable to go to school and at risk of disease, the agency said.
Chris McIvor, Save the Children’s country director, said: ”These two cyclones risk throwing Mozambique back into confusion. The international community must be poised to offer assistance to newly displaced families and those already suffering the affects of the Zambezi floods.
”It is imperative that donors act immediately to minimise the trauma of these disasters on children, ensuring they are given shelter, protected from abuse and given access to schooling and healthcare.”
The impact of Favio has already been felt in Madagascar after it scraped the southern tip of the Indian Ocean island, disrupting relief operations trying to reach 582 000 people struggling to cope with the aftermath of a drought in the south, and flooding that has left at least three dead and displaced 33 000 throughout the country.
The storm caused heavy rains that reduced road access to the south-eastern parts of the island, said Gianluca Ferrera, the World Food Programme’s deputy country director for Madagascar.