A husband holds his heavily pregnant wife’s hand as the two wade across roaring floodwaters in southern Malawi. She is due any moment, but their village has been cut off by Cyclone Freddy, leaving them no other option than to make a perilous 15km trip to the nearest clinic on foot.
“We will find a way to get her to the hospital today,” Pilirani Aironi said as his wife, Mercy, stood barefoot by his side.
Cyclone Freddy hit the southern African country earlier this week, triggering flooding and mudslides that swept away homes, roads and bridges.
Photo: Reuters
It dumped so much rainfall — about six months’ worth in six days — that new waterways have appeared in some areas.
When journalists met them on Saturday, Mercy and Pilirani Aironi had already crossed three such streams.
“We know there are more rivers along the way, but we have no choice,” Pilirani Aironi said.
Their village, Muloza, near the Mozambican border, was badly affected by the cyclone, which has killed 438 people, injured 918 and displaced more than 345,000 in Malawi, the latest government update said.
Located on a mountain side, Muloza was almost completely wiped away by a rockfall unleashed by floodwaters. Large white boulders, sand and floodwaters cover the area where homes once stood.
The injured also had to be taken to hospital on foot. Among them were eight of Winditoni Makava’s relatives.
“We carried them on our shoulders or on some stretchers,” 75-year-old Makava said.
Nine other members of his family died in the flooding. Only five of their bodies have been found so far.
Leaving town is difficult — and relief is also struggling to come in.
“We are surviving by the grace of God,” local traditional leader Manuel Nachidwa said.
“Most of us are surviving on the bananas that” are left on the trees, he said.
Cyclone Freddy, which dissipated this week, has ravaged southern Africa since late last month, when it pummeled Mozambique, Madagascar and Reunion. It has caused more than 570 deaths in southern Africa.
In Malawi it affected more than 500 million people, the UN said.
The cyclone then looped back on to the mainland after regaining strength over the Mozambique Channel.
Freddy first developed near Australia early last month and the World Meteorological Organization has convened an expert panel to determine whether it has broken the record for the longest-ever cyclone in recorded history.
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