Catastrophic flooding has forced thousands to flee their homes in Mozambique, rising waters leaving others stranded as boats and helicopters seek out survivors, reports Reuters.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC), which is assisting with relief efforts, flooding has directly impacted over 620,000 people in Mozambique, flooding more than 72,000 homes and damaging roads, bridges and health centres. At least 103 people have died.
“The numbers keep rising as extensive flooding continues and dams keep releasing water to avoid bursting,” Paula Emerson, UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) head in Mozambique, told reporters on Tuesday. She explained that some 5,000 kilometres of road have been damaged across nine provinces, including the main road link to Maputo.
National director of water resources management Agostinho Vilanculos told Portugal’s Lusa news agency that the water levels last week resembled those in the 2000 floods that killed some 700 people. Aerial footage of affected areas shows vast swaths of land submerged in water, with only tree tops peeking out.
[See more: Rainfall-related deaths top 90 in Mozambique]
“Our home is now completely submerged,” said Celeste Maria, a hospital worker who fled Chokwe in Gaza Province last week after the flood warnings were issued. “We left behind neighbours who are now telling us they are sheltering on rooftops as the water continues to rise,” she told Reuters.
Rescue work started with boats operated by Red Cross volunteers, with more than a dozen boats deployed by Mozambique’s relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute. But as water levels made access increasingly difficult, helicopters were sent to rescue people trapped in trees, on roof tops or the tops of hills. As of Sunday, 110 people stranded by flood waters in the Limpopo Valley in Gaza had been rescued.
Conditions have deteriorated since Mozambique declared a nationwide red alert Saturday, due to days of exceptionally heavy rainfall and runoff from neighbouring countries. President Daniel Chapo, scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, cancelled his trip to oversee flood relief efforts as the situation worsened.“Mozambique is living through a difficult moment,” read a statement from Chapo’s office. “Right now the absolute priority is to save lives.”
