Maputo — Several districts of the northern Mozambican provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula were hit on Sunday by torrential rain and heavy winds as a result of the passage of intense tropical cyclone Chido.
The strong winds hit especially the districts of Metuge, Ancuabe and Mecufi, in Cabo Delgado, and knocked down houses as well as electricity pylons, leaving parts of the province without power and water.
In the provincial capital, Pemba city, at least 500 households are in need of shelter in accommodation centres. The strong wind also hit the hangar at Pemba Airport. Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has cancelled its flights to Pemba and Nampula.
By Sunday evening, communications with Pemba were limited, and the city had no electricity.
According to Luisa Meque, chairperson of the National Disaster Risk Management Institute (INGD), who was speaking on Sunday, in Nampula city, at a meeting of Emergency Operational Committee aimed at assessing the impact of the cyclone, at least 250,000 people may need humanitarian assistance as a result of the passage of Chido.
The cyclonic winds, which reached 200 kilometers per hour when the storm made landfall on Sunday morning, slowed later in the day to 95 kilometers per hour. The classification of Chido was downgraded from intense cyclone to severe tropical storm.
According to the Northern Regional Water Board (ARA-Norte), the storm may also raise the level of the main rivers in the northern provinces. ARA-Norte called on communities to observe the relevant precautionary measures and avoid crossing watercourses.
As the rain continues to fall it may bring some relief to previously drought-stricken areas, particularly in the Zambezi basin. The level of water in the reservoir behind the Cahora Bassa dam had fallen to just 26 per cent of its capacity. If the water level falls much further, this could threaten the dam's capacity to generate electricity. The rains brought by Chido may have postponed this possibility.
Initial estimates suggest that Chido has done much less damage to Mozambique than to the French island of Mayotte in the Mozambique Channel, which bore the full blast of the storm on Saturday.
Chido was considered the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in almost a century with a death toll of over 1,000.
