7 March 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's National Emergency Operational Centre (CENOE) on Friday advised coastal districts of Nampula and Zambezia provinces to remain on the alert, as a category three cyclone approaches.
Cyclone Jokwe, after brushing the northern tip of Madagascar, is crossing the Mozambique Channel, and heading towards the Nampula coast. By 14.00, the centre of the cyclone was about 230 kilometres from the coast of the Nampula district of Mossuril, and cyclonic winds were reaching 130 kilometres an hour.
The National Meteorology Institute (INAM) said the cyclone was already influencing the weather of the coastal districts bringing moderate to heavy rains to the districts of Moma, Mogincual, Mossuril, Angoche and Mozambique Island.
The latest projection of the cyclone's course by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre of the US Navy and Air Force suggests that by about midnight the centre of the storm will be just south of the port of Nacala. Jokwe is then projected to move southwards, down the Nampula and Zambezia coasts. But by Sunday, it should be sweeping back out to sea, moving away from the Mozambican mainland.
The warning statement from CENOE states that the Nampula and Zambezia coastal districts can expect moderate, and locally heavy rains on Saturday morning, and winds of up to 50 kilometres an hour.
CENOE urges the authorities and residents of those districts to take the necessary preventive measures, and to follow any further warnings that may be issued as the storm approaches.
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