Intense Cyclone Favio, sweeping in after wreaking havoc in Madagascar, hit the coast of Mozambique on Thursday morning.
Margie Toens, who lives on the beachfront in Vilankulo, south of the island of Bazaruto, told the Mail & Guardian Online 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”.
By 10am on Thursday, the cyclone was about to make landfall at Vilankulo, said Tshepho Ngobeni, marine forecaster at the South African Weather Service.
The storm had average wind speeds of about 176km/h, with gusts of up to 246km/h, he said. It was moving north-west at about 14km/h and generating ”phenomenal” waves of up to 9m high.
On Wednesday, the country’s National Disasters Management Institute (INGC) said the cyclone had intensified to a destructive category-four storm.
Although Inhambane was forecast to bear the brunt of the cyclone, the INGC warned that the entire coastline, from Chongoene in Gaza province to Buzi in Sofala, was likely to be affected by hurricane-force winds.
The area concerned is roughly between the Limpopo and Pungue rivers.
The INGC advised authorities in Gaza, Inhambane and Sofala provinces to take preventive measures, the Mozambique News Agency reported. The public was warned stay clear of flood-prone areas, to keep stores of food and water for emergencies and to ensure that all boats were securely moored.
Schools and factories in the path of the cyclone were advised to close, the news agency said.
The cyclone was not expected to affect the Zambezi Valley and add to the misery of people already made homeless by severe flooding in that region. A major storm hitting Mozambique’s central provinces, where more than 120 000 people have already been displaced, could seriously hurt ongoing relief efforts.
”It would be another emergency,” said João Ribeiro, the deputy chief of the INGC, on Wednesday. However, he voiced confidence the government and civilian relief partners would be able to cope.
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.