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Mozambique mourns as Cyclone Idai’s toll rises above 300

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CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe — Mozambique on Wednesday began three days of national mourning for more than 200 victims of Cyclone Idai, one of the most destructive storms southern Africa has experienced in decades. In neighbouring Zimbabwe, state media said the death toll was above 100.

The full extent of the devastation will only be known once floodwaters from torrential rains, expected to continue into Thursday, recede. It will be days before Mozambique’s inundated plains drain toward the Indian Ocean, and aid groups have warned the waters are still rising.

People have been reported clinging to rooftops and trees since the cyclone roared in over the weekend. The United Nations humanitarian office said the town of Buzi, with some 200,000 people, was at risk of becoming at least partially submerged.

“Flood waters are predicted to rise significantly in the coming days and 350,000 people are at risk,” the U.N. office said.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa received a sombre welcome in the hard-hit mountain community of Chimanimani near the border with Mozambique. Zimbabwean officials have said some 350 people may have died.

Some bodies from Zimbabwe have been swept down the mountainside into Mozambique. “Some of the peasants in Mozambique were calling some of our people to say, ‘We see bodies, we believe those bodies are coming from Zimbabwe,'” said July Moyo, the minister of local government.

Mozambique’s president late Tuesday said more than 200 people were confirmed dead there. President Filipe Nyusi after flying over the affected region on Monday said he expected more than 1,000 deaths.

Aid workers were shocked as they arrived in the badly hit Mozambique port city of Beira, estimated to be 90 per cent destroyed. Its 500,000 residents are scrambling for food, fuel and medicine. Some neighbourhoods are below sea level.

“The power of the cyclone is visible everywhere with shipping containers moved like little Lego blocks,” the aid group CARE’s Mozambique country director Marc Nosbach said.

International aid has started trickling in to ease the crisis, while churches in Zimbabwe collected supplies to send on.

“Everyone is doubling, tripling, quadrupling whatever they were planning” in terms of aid, said Caroline Haga of the Red Cross in Beira. “It’s much larger than anyone could ever anticipate.”

On Wednesday, the Emirates News Agency cited the Emirates Red Crescent as saying that the United Arab Emirates would provide 18.3 million dirhams ($4.9 million) to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Zimbabwe’s president said a planeload of aid from the UAE was expected to arrive in the capital, Harare, later Wednesday.

The chairman of the African Union Commission said the continental body would provide $350,000 in immediate support to the countries.

The European Union has released 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million) in emergency aid, and the United Kingdom pledged up to 6 million pounds ($7.9 million). Tanzania’s military has airlifted 238 tons of food and medicine, and three Indian naval ships have been diverted to Beira to help with evacuations of stranded people and other efforts.

Sacha Myers of the non-profit Save the Children described rising floodwaters and “rivers and dams bursting their banks.” She said getting aid to affected areas was difficult as roads and bridges across the region have been washed away or submerged.

Now hunger and illness are growing concerns. Crops across the region have been destroyed. Waterborne diseases are likely to spread.

“There are large areas where people are really finding it difficult to find sources of clean water,” Gert Verdonck, the emergency co-ordinator with Doctors Without Borders in Beira, said in a statement. He added: “On top of all of that, there’s the issue of how to treat people who fall sick_with so many health centres damaged or destroyed.”

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Associated Press writers Andrew Meldrum and Cara Anna in Johannesburg and Matt Sedensky in New York contributed.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Farai Mutsaka, The Associated Press













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Fatalities reported Wednesday evening: Hurricane Milton Makes Landfall In Florida

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

 

By Hailey Gomez

Hurricane Milton officially made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on Wednesday night as local residents have either bunkered down or fled from the areas expected to be hit, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Dropping from a Category 4 to Category 3 storm right before landfall, the devastating storm had 120 mph sustained winds and higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center reported. Warnings about Hurricane Milton began early in the week, with lawmakers and officials urging residents within Florida’s Gulf Coast area to flee from their homes or be prepared for disastrous impacts, according to The Associated Press News.

“As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place. First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow. Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as long as it takes,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted to X.

An estimated 2 million people, including those within the Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida, area, were under a flash-flood warning from the Tampa National Weather Service, as “between 6 and 12 inches of rain” had already fallen.

Violent videos of the storm have began to circulating on X showing powerful winds tearing apart homes, trees and power lines.

Early reports indicated fatalities occurred due to tornado touchdowns prior to landfall on Florida’s Atlantic coast, according to West Palm Beach-based affiliate WPTV. While details remain unclear about the deceased, St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson confirmed to the outlet “multiple people” have been killed.

The storm comes on the heels of Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, which resulted in the deaths of over 200 people as it ripped through North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia after first making landfall in Florida on the evening of Sept. 26.

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Evacuations urged in Tampa Bay ahead of Hurricane Milton

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From The Center Square

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“We’re talking about storm surge values higher than the ceiling,”  “Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate.”

Florida residents in and near Tampa Bay are strongly urged to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm that could increase its intensity.

In the Atlantic Basin, Milton at 18 hours is the second-fastest storm to go from Category 1 to 5. Wilma in 2005 needed just 12. Milton’s maximum sustained winds measured Monday morning were 160 mph.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie in Tallahassee on Monday said the ceilings in the state’s emergency operations center were 10 feet, 8 inches tall. The surge forecast for Tampa Bay from the National Hurricane Center is from 8 to 12 feet.

“We’re talking about storm surge values higher than the ceiling,” Guthrie said. “Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate. If they have called for your evacuation order, I beg you, I implore you, to evacuate. Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave. We had situations where people died of drowning in Hurricane Ian. Had they just gone across the bridge from Estero Bay, Sanibel Island and so on, just across the bridge to the first available shelter that had capacity, they’d still be alive today.”

According to the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. advisory, the storm is packing winds of 160 mph and is predicted to make landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. If the storm continues to intensify, it could become a Category 5 storm.

Hurricane Helene landed in the Big Bend region on Sept. 26. While Florida took a wallop, the remnants did the most severe damage in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. At 236, the death toll is fourth most from a hurricane in America since 1950.

Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed Hurricane Helene debris removal from the Tampa Bay area after workers found one of the gates locked and unmanned at the Pinellas County landfall despite the two-term Republican’s executive order that required landfills to remain open 24 hours to accept wreckage.

The Florida Highway Patrol, according to DeSantis, “took matters into their own hands,” fastened some rope to the gate and ripped it open so trucks carrying debris could dump their cargo there. He said crews already hauled 500 truckloads with 9,000 cubic yards of Helene debris from the barrier islands in Pinellas County and 180,000 cubic yards statewide.

“We need as much of this debris picked up as possible, this creates a safety hazard, and it also will increase the damage that Milton could do with flying debris,” DeSantis said. “All local entities should comply with this order and work around the clock to accomplish this mission. We don’t have time for bureaucracy and red tape.”

DeSantis said 800 National Guardsmen have been activated for debris removal in coastal areas affected by Helene, with 5,000 already on duty and 3,000 mobilized prior to Milton’s landfall. He also said the state suspended all tolls in west and central Florida such as the tolled part of Interstate 75 known as Alligator Alley, which connects Naples on the Gulf Coast with Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic Coast.

DeSantis issued an emergency declaration on Saturday for Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, Columbia, DeSoto, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Glades, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lafayette, Lake, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, St. Lucie Sumter, Suwanee, Taylor, Union and Volusia counties.

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