Calm has fallen, the sea has become flat again. But in this northern province of Mozambique, the traces of the passage of the last cyclone, which killed at least twelve people according to a last report on Sunday, remain visible: soaring roofs, collapsed walls. Gombe has affected more than 30,000 Mozambicans since Friday, mainly in the province of Nampula open to the Indian Ocean, and that neighboring Zambézia (center), the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management told AFP. (INGD).
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Forty people were injured, more than 3,000 houses destroyed. “Gombe arrived with more intensity than Cyclone Idai, but fortunately did not have the same impact in terms of destruction because it quickly lost powersaid Cesar Tembe of INGD. Mozambique was hit in the spring of 2019 by Cyclone Idai, the most violent ever recorded in the country.
In the suburb of the port city of Nacala, the houses cling to the hillside, facing the ocean. Laundry dries in the middle of piles of yellow bricks: whole sections of houses have collapsed, noted an AFP photographer. Most thatched roofs have holes in them. Another in sheet metal is on the ground. The bricks that were to hold it flew away with it. The gusts of wind reached 170 km / h, according to weather institutes. Eight shelters are currently open in Nampula. The most populous province of the country had already been affected in January by tropical storm Ana which killed a hundred people.
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Gombe, which decreased in intensity to the depression stage, also caused heavy rains in neighboring Malawi, leading to flooding. Five people were killed, according to a statement from the authorities on Sunday evening. In some southern cities, the rain has not stopped for two days. Each year, about 80 tropical storms or cyclones form on the globe over tropical waters. In southern Africa, the hurricane season extends from November to April.