8 March 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's National Emergency Operations Centre (CENOE) on Saturday morning declared a red alert for coastal districts of the northern province of Nampula, as Cyclone Jokwe approached.
According to the National Meteorology Institute, over Friday night the storm intensified and is now classified as a Category Four cyclone. By Saturday morning, the centre of the storm was near Mozambique Island, just south of the port of Nacala.
Rather than come inland, the cyclone is expected to move south, brushing the coasts of Mossuril, Mogincual, Moma and Angoche districts in Nampula, and Pebane in Zambezia.
Over Friday night the cyclone had already brought winds of up to 50 kilometres on hour to Mozambique Island. But INAM warns that the winds in the centre of the storm reach 200 kilometres an hour.
In addition to the red alert declared for the Nampula coast from Mozambique Island southwards, CENOE has declared a lesser state of alert, a yellow alert, for Pebane.
CENOE is recommending that people in the danger area should take shelter in safe places, and should not venture out into the strong winds. Since the cyclone is a serious threat to shipping in the Mozambique Channel, all fishing boats and other vessels should be moored securely, and should not attempt to put out to sea.
As it moves south, Jokwe is expected to drift out to sea again, and by Sunday afternoon it will be over a hundred kilometers from the Mozambican coast.
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