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Dozens killed in Tropical Storm Ana as southern Africa braces for more wild weather

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The death toll from a storm that struck three southern African countries has
risen to 77 as emergency teams battled to repair damaged infrastructure and
help tens of thousands of victims.



Tropical Storm Ana made landfall in Madagascar on Monday before ploughing into
Mozambique and Malawi through the week, bringing torrential rains




Rescue workers and authorities across the three countries were assessing the
full extent of the damage on Friday morning, even as another storm was forming
in the Indian Ocean.



Madagascar on Thursday night declared a state of national disaster as the
death toll rose to 48. Mozambique reported 18 killed while 11 had died in
Malawi.



In the three hardest-hit countries, tens of thousands of homes were damaged.
Some collapsed under the heavy rain, trapping victims in the rubble.



Swollen rivers washed away bridges and submerged fields, drowning livestock
and destroying the livelihoods of rural families.



In Madagascar, 130,000 people fled their homes. In the capital, Antananarivo,
schools and gyms were turned into emergency shelters.




“We only brought our most important possessions,” Berthine Razafiarisoa, who
sheltered in a gym with his family of 10, said.



In northern and central Mozambique, Ana destroyed 10,000 homes and dozens of
schools and hospitals, while downing power lines.



It “might evolve into a severe tropical storm in the next few days”, the
United Nations said in a statement.



Up to six tropical cyclones are expected before the rainy season ends in
March.



Children stand inside their house covered with mud after Storm Ana hit the
district of Tete, Mozambique.



Aid agencies scale up Storm Ana response amid floods and rising death toll



“The situation is of extreme concern” and “vulnerability is very, very high,”
the UN’s resident coordinator in Mozambique, Myrta Kaulard, said.










“The challenge is titanic, the challenge is extreme,” she said, noting that
the storms were hitting “an already extremely vulnerable” region still trying
to recover from cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which hit the region in 2019.



“Mozambique is responding to a complex crisis in the north which has caused an
additional enormous strain on the budget of the country, on the population,”
Kaulard said. “In addition there is also Covid.”



In neighbouring Malawi, the government declared a state of natural disaster.



Most of the country lost electricity early in the week, after floodwaters hit
generating stations. Power was restored by Thursday in parts of the country,
but parts of the electric grid were destroyed.




“Our priority now is restoring power to health establishments, water treatment
distribution systems and schools,” the national power utility said in a
statement.



Southern Africa, and especially Mozambique, has suffered destructive storms
repeatedly in recent years.


with information from theguardian.com


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