IRIN
Southern Africa - Floods
7 April 2000


JOHANNESBURG, 7 April (IRIN) - Cyclone Hudah remained off the Mozambique
coast on Friday five days after ravaging the northeast sector of
Madagascar.

The South African Weather Bureau said the weather front had remained
"semi-stationary" offshore overnight and was following "a slow, but
complex and unpredictable track." It said the eye of the storm was
unlikely to reach the coast for at least 24 hours.

In Madagascar, where the latest death toll on Friday was put at 20, a
spokesman for the country's disaster agency, the Conseil national de
securite (CNS), told IRIN rapid assessment teams would spend the weekend
assessing the devastation caused by the "most powerful cyclone of its
kind" to hit the island. Malagasy newspapers reported concerns about a new
cholera outbreak at Mahajanga, a major coastal city on the northwest of
the island.

In Cape Town, finance ministers from Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana
and Zimbabwe, four southern African states hit by floods in February and
March, decided on a joint strategy to secure relief funds from donor
nations.

"We need a sense of togetherness in seeking funds, especially for those
countries worse off than others," South African Public Works Minister
Stella Sigcau told a news conference.


MADAGASCAR

The toll

As of Friday, 20 people were reported to have died. The CNS said they
included five people who were aboard a boat which sank when the cyclone
struck.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said at
least 303,000 people, 61,000 of them children under five, had been
affected by the storm when it brought heavy rains and winds of up to 320
kmh across the northern sector of the giant Indian Ocean island.

In its latest report, OCHA said preliminary surveys showed at least
100,000 people were in need of emergency assistance. This figure includes
13,000 children, according to UNICEF.


The areas worst affected

The latest report compiled by the French chapter of Medecins sans
Frontieres (MSF), UNICEF and the CNS said on Friday that the eye of storm
was 40 km wide when it hit Antalaha, and moved on to the nearby towns of
Andapa and Maroantsetra. Further details can be seen on an MSF-supported
website at http://www.lk-oi.com/hudah


Antalaha

OCHA described Antalaha, a town with 173,334 people, and surrounding
villages as "severely damaged." In Antalaha, up to 95 percent of
infrastructure including churches, schools and clinics were destroyed.

"The airport terminal and its telecommunication facilities are damaged. It
is worth noting, however, that the alert was given ahead of time so that
power lines could be shut down," the OCHA report said.

Dr Sergio Soro, UNICEF Representative in Madagascar, told IRIN: "Antalaha
is by far the worst, with most the homes destroyed. It is entirely without
drinking water or electricity, and all the places nearby are flooded."  
Its renowned vanilla and pepper crops were totally destroyed, he added
after a visit to the area.  "I have never seen anything like this in 30
years of humanitarian work," Soro said. The CNS told IRIN troops were
being dispatched to Antalaha to assist with emergency operations.


Maroantsetra

In Maroantsetra, a town with a population of 147,900, some 100 km south of
Antalaha, OCHA said only the airport runway and the main street had
remained passable.  "Most villages are flooded or isolated by water. The
(assessment) team estimated that 75 percent of the total district
population is affected by the cyclone, of whom 20 percent are children
under five," the report said.


Andapa

In Andapa, a town of 136,000 people some 80 km inland from Antalaha, OCHA
said at least half the population had been affected.


Mahajanga

Although humanitarian survey teams were still to check the situation
across the island along the west coast at Mahajanga, the daily 'Midi
Madagasikara' on Friday reported a new cholera outbreak.

"Gutters and canals in 11 neighbourhoods of the City of Flowers are simply
overflowing now following the passing of cyclone Hudah," it said.  "A mire
of stagnant waters has become fertile ground for cholera." By 1 April,
before the passage of the new cyclone, it said already 533 people had died
of cholera in area hit by the two earlier cyclones. It said the NGO
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was building public latrines and educating
people on the dangers of cholera.


Food

WFP said it had food stockpiled in the region which it would start
distributing to areas cut off by flood waters using two helicopters funded
by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).


Assistance

The United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) is opening operational
centres in Antalaha and Maroantsetra to support relief coordination and
assistance. WFP will assign a logistics expert and a programme officer at
the UN centre in Antalaha, and UNICEF said it was sending a water
sanitation officer. In Maroantsetra, WFP will provide a logistics expert
and UNICEF a medical doctor. The UN Resident Coordinator may assign a
field relief coordinator for each of the two centres for three months if
resources are quickly obtained.


Relief Needs

The United Nations said it would shortly issue a flash appeal for
immediate needs for tents, food, blankets, health kits, water purification
tablets and building materials.  The UNDMT reiterated a need for two
medium-size planes and two light helicopters, to be managed by WFP. It
said four rubber boats were also required to reach the flooded areas.



MOZAMBIQUE

Contingency planning

The Mozambique disaster management authority, the Instituto Nacional
Gestao de Calamidades (INGC), met with representatives of UN agencies,
USAID, the British Department for International Development (DFID), NGOs
and other humanitarian experts to draft a contingency plan should cyclone
Hudah strike.


The weather

The South African Weather Bureau said on Friday the storm was some 200 km
off the coast southeast of Quelimane: "It is predicted to move slowly in a
generally south westerly direction but should remain offshore for the next
24 hours during which time the intensity of the system is expected to
remain at the 'Tropical Cyclone' category.

"Whilst winds of up to 160 kmh are present near the centre, wind speeds
overland are not expected to reach gale force before Saturday 8 April," it
said. The weather report said heavy rain could be expected north of the
country's second city, Beira, mainly along the coastal belt. Quelimane had
already reported 80 mm of rain on Friday.


Food

WFP said had already stockpiled food in the provinces most likely to be
hit, Nampula and Zambezia.


Air assets

The USAID-funded AirServ, as well as the Malawian Air Force, and the South
African Air Force currently have 24 helicopters and 19 fixed-wing planes
at hand in Mozambique. Boats

On 5 April, USAID/OFDA sent 12 experts from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and
four boats for further relief operations. In its latest report, USAID said
they would train NGO partners in search and rescue techniques.  The United
States also sent four Zodiac boats to Maputo for use by NGOs. Should the
new cyclone strike, the government already had 60 US boats on standby in
Beira.

 
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