Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique twice last week, first as a tropical depression, and then later as a Category 3 equivalent hurricane. Mozambique is hit by hurricanes at least once a year, but Idai struck near the city of Beira and the results have been devastating.
In the Southern Hemisphere, cyclones rotate clockwise. This has the effect of making the front left quadrant the worst part of the storm (unlike the front right quadrant for northern hemisphere hurricanes). The front left quadrant struck Beira, a low-lying city of 500,000 which sits at the mouth of the Pungwe River, head on.
90% of the city is reported destroyed or damaged, and wind and water damage is evident in aerial videos.
A storm surge of 16 feet inundated the city, much of which sits at 30 feet above sea level and less. Idai’s rains inland have flooded many rural regions in central Mozambique into Malawi and Zimbabwe, and the situation outside of the urban area is likely catastrophic. Harvest season was due in a few weeks, and these fields are now inundated.
The cyclone will have far-reaching consequences beyond the flooding. Farmers in the region were about to harvest their maize crop when Idai hit, and many of their fields have been ruined, meaning widespread hunger in at least the year ahead.
Of interest to me is the condition of the city’s Grande Hotel. Once an opulent resort, it’s been home to thousands of impoverished people since the end of Mozambique’s civil war. It’s unknown to me what their fate has been.
Scenes like this will become all too regular in the coming decades. The UN has labeled this likely the southern hemisphere’s worst weather related disaster.