Cyclone Kenneth

Cyclone Kenneth on track to be the strongest cyclone to ever hit eastern Africa, with wind gusts of a Category 5 hurricane (300km/h)this is going to be another major disaster for Mozambique.

Cyclone Kenneth has made landfall in northern Mozambique, this after it left a trail of destruction in the Comoros Island where three people have died.   Areas in and around Pemba are already feeling the effects of cyclone Kenneth with gusty winds and heavy rains.   The tropical cyclone remains a Category 4  with speeds of up to 300 km per hour.

A powerful cyclone smashed into northern Mozambique, leaving one person dead on Friday, barely a month after a super-storm hit the centre of the country, devastating the area and leaving hundreds dead.

Category three Cyclone Kenneth, packing winds of 160 kilometres an hour, struck the north coast’s Cabo Delgado province late on Thursday after swiping the Comoros islands.

The United Nations warned of flash flooding and landslides as Mozambique’s emergency agency the INGC reported one person was killed by a falling coconut tree in the port city of Pemba, Cabo Delgado’s provincial capital.

On the tourist island of Ibo, 90% of homes for the 6,000 population had been flattened, according to a spokesperson for the agency, Antonio Beleza.

“I don’t expect to find my hotel undamaged,” said Swiss hotel owner Lucie Amr, who took refuge in Ibo’s fort alongside many local residents.

The winds had reduced to about 70 kilometres an hour on Friday, according to the local meteorological institute, but heavy rains are forecast over the next 24 hours, raising fears of flooding and mudslides in Cabo Delgado, which borders Tanzania.

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The most powerful storm to strike the region in decades, Idai cut a path of destruction through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. It left more than 1,000 dead, causing damage estimated at around $2 billion (1.8 billion euros)

“Although floodwaters have receded in most areas it (Idai) affected, access is still a challenge as infrastructure was severely compromised,” the WFP said.

“This second cyclone is an additional blow for the people of Mozambique and bound to complicate the humanitarian response,” said the organisation, adding that it had already provided food aid to 1.3 million people after Idai.

It said the government had made public buildings, including schools, available to people seeking shelter from the flooding and the WFP has “prepositioned” over 500 tonnes of food in Pemba.

A helicopter is expected to arrive in Cabo Delgado when weather conditions allow as roads are expected to be impassable because of flooding, making food delivery difficult, it added.

Forecasters at Meteo-France warned that Kenneth could trigger waves off Mozambique’s northeastern shore as much as five metres higher than usual.

“I was quite preoccupied by the sea because they announced six metre waves… the wind was very strong, and I’ve never seen anything like it in my 15 years in Pemba,” a Portuguese owner of a lodge on Wimby beach, Anabela Moreira, told AFP.

Local journalist Jonas Wazir told AFP that some houses had collapsed and that electricity supply in the city was down.

The Red Cross warned it was “especially concerned” about the storm’s impact, as many communities in Mozambique were still recovering from a cyclone that hit on the night of 14-15 March.

“Cyclone Kenneth may require a major new humanitarian operation at the same time that the ongoing Cyclone Idai response targeting three million people in three countries remains critically underfunded,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) also warned.

Kenneth first passed by the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros on Thursday, battering it with high winds and heavy rains, the country’s meteorological office wrote on Facebook.

TANZANIA CONCERN

Tanzanian authorities ordered schools and businesses shut in some southern districts on Thursday and urged people to brace for extreme winds and rain.

The Tanzanian provinces of Mtwara, Lindi and Ruvuma were at highest risk, the country’s meteorological agency said.

Residents in Mtwara were leaving the coastal enclave with their families, some on foot, for emergency shelters, witnesses told AFP by phone.

Gelasius Byakanwa, the governor of Mtwara, ordered schools closed in his province and asked “students to stay home and employees not to go to their offices”.

https://ewn.co.za/2019/04/26/first-death-as-cyclone-kenneth-smashes-into-mozambique

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Another powerful cyclone has hit Mozambique. Cyclone Kenneth made landfall first on the Comoros Islands before turning its wrath on northern Mozambique. The southern African country is still reeling from Cyclone Idai last month. The UN says it’s the first time in known history that two cyclones have hit Mozambique in one season. At least three people have been reported dead on the Comoros Islands, with the toll likely to rise as Kenneth continues on its path toward Tanzania.

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Cyclone Kenneth hits Mozambique as country still reeling from devastation of Cyclone Idai.

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Mozambique: Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in Mozambique just weeks after Cyclone Idai ravaged the nation. Thirty-thousand people were evacuated from areas the storm was likely to hit.

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24 April
Meanwhile, in Mozambique, authorities have warned that a tropical storm could hit the country later this week — just one month after Cyclone Idai struck. The country’s National Institute for Disaster Management says the storm, which will be named Kenneth if it becomes the next tropical cyclone in the region – could also hit Tanzania. People in parts of Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe are still reeling from the after-effects of Cyclone Idai — which killed at least 960 people and left some three million in need of humanitarian assistance.

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Tropical Storm Kenneth (north of Madagascar) – CYCLONE

Sikloon IDAI – Mosambiek/Zimbabwe

Power of Idai cyclone – Beira