There was a horrific natural disaster in southern Africa days ago, although this was likely largely overshadowed by the man-made tragedy in New Zealand.
Indeed, Cyclone Idai wrought unbelievable destruction upon three countries - Mozambique, Malawi, and Zumbabwe. Hundreds have already been confirmed dead, and the death toll is expected to rise to above 1,000. Some people are already suggesting that this may have been the largest single natural disaster ever in the Southern Hemisphere!
One major obstacle is that these are not developed countries, so that much of the hardest hit areas are very difficult and time-consuming to gain access to even under good conditions. Clearly, Cyclone Idai had made it far, far more difficult for any kind of aid relief.
Here is a description to get a picture of just how bad this disaster is:
According to the Associated Press, bodies from Zimbabwe have been swept down mountainsides 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, a minister of local government.
The cyclone made landfall near the city of Beira in Mozambique, home to 500,000, as a Category 3 storm. Reports from the city indicate that about 90% of it has been destroyed by a combination of strong winds, storm surge flooding and heavy rainfall
The UN estimates 1.6 million people have been affected.
"Everyone is doubling, tripling, quadrupling whatever they were planning," said Caroline Haga of the Red Cross referring to aid, according to the AP. "It's much larger than anyone could ever anticipate."
Unfortunately, torrential rains are continuing, so the situation is projected to get worse.
Yet, it could get even worse. How bad could it get?
According to the UN Humanitarian Office, "The situation is likely to deteriorate, and the number of people affected is likely to increase, as weather experts predict heavy rainfall" through March 21, with water levels potentially rising another 26 feet in some places.
"There are also growing concerns regarding the potential effects of the overflow of the Marowanyati Dam in Zimbabwe on water levels in Mozambique," the office stated.
Horrible.
Truly tragic news from southern Africa. Let us hope that it does not actually get that bad, and let's keep our eyes and ears open to see what we can do to help from our end.
This is the kind of tragedy that puts a lot of things about life into perspective.
This is the link to the article that I used in writing this blog entry, and from which I got all of the quotes used above:
The "inland ocean" in the Indian Ocean by Andrew Freedman, March 20, 2019:
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