Over 100 dead in torrential rains and floods across southern Africa
Thousands have been forced to evacuate in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with helicopters plucking people to safety
Army helicopters rescued people stranded on rooftops and hundreds of tourists and workers were evacuated from one of the world’s biggest game reserves, as torrential rains and flooding in three countries in southern Africa killed more than 100 people, authorities said on Friday.
The death toll across South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe is an accumulation after weeks of heavy rains. Weather services issued warnings that more rain was on the way, possibly bringing more destructive flooding.
Mozambique was the hardest hit, with flooding across swathes of the country’s central and southern provinces.
Its Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction said 103 people had died in an unusually severe rainy season since late last year, though that count included deaths from various causes including electrocution from lightning strikes, drowning in floods, infrastructure collapse caused by the severe weather and cholera, the institute said.
More than 200,000 people have been affected in Mozambique, thousands of homes have been damaged and tens of thousands face evacuation, the World Food Program said of another crisis in a poor country with limited resources that has faced several damaging cyclones in the last few years.