Extract from ABC News
Cyclone Freddy has pummelled Mozambique, killing one person, ripping roofs off houses and triggering a lockdown in one port town, two weeks after 27 died when the storm first made landfall.
Key points:
- Cyclone Freddy is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere
- It is the second time the cyclone has struck Mozambique
- State media reports one person died when his house collapsed
The cyclone, which is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere, started sweeping onshore by 10pm local time, satellite data showed, after hours of battering the southern African coast with rain.
It was the second time the cyclone struck the country since it was named after being spotted near Indonesia on February 6.
"The town is a no-go zone; no shops or businesses open," Quelimane resident Vania Massingue said.
"Everything is closed. We're locked up.
"I can see some houses with roofs torn apart, broken windows and the streets flooded. It's really scary."
After swirling for 34 days, the weather system is likely to have broken the record for the longest-lasting tropical cyclone.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the previous record was held by a 31-day hurricane in 1994.
State broadcaster TVM said one person died when his house collapsed, and that the power utility had switched off the electricity completely as a precaution. All flights have been suspended, it added.
The cyclone is slow-moving, which meteorological experts say means it will pick up more moisture off the sea, bringing heavy rainfall.
Around the world, climate change is making cyclones and hurricanes wetter, windier and stronger, scientists say.
Oceans absorb much of the heat from greenhouse gas emissions, and when warm seawater evaporates its heat energy is transferred to the atmosphere, fuelling more destructive storms.
More than 171,000 people were affected after the cyclone swept through southern Mozambique last month, bringing heavy rains and floods that damaged crops and destroyed houses.
The death toll after Freddy first made landfall stood at 27 — 10 in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar — according to the United Nations.
More than half a million people are at risk in Mozambique this time, notably in Zambezia, Tete, Sofala and Nampula provinces.
The cyclone is expected to hit north-eastern Zimbabwe, south-east Zambia and Malawi.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it has recorded the highest accumulated cyclone energy, which is a measurement of the storm's strength over time, of any southern hemisphere storm.
Reuters
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