Madagascar’s disaster management office confirmed at least 59 deaths last week from Cyclone Gezani, the second tropical storm to hit the island nation this year.
The National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) reported 16,428 displaced, 15 missing, 804 injured, and 423,986 affected by the disaster.
Gezani barrelled through the country just ten days after Tropical Cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31,000, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.
At its peak, Gezani had sustained winds of 185 kilometres (115 miles) per hour, with gusts up to 270 kilometres per hour – powerful enough to rip metal from rooftops and uproot large trees.
It moved across the Mozambique Channel, bringing heavy winds and waves of up to 10 metres to southern Mozambique, its weather service confirmed.
The weather system has since curved back eastward over the channel, and forecasts show it looping toward Madagascar again, with a second landfall expected in southwestern Madagascar on Monday.
Authorities have placed Ampanihy district in southwestern Madagascar on red alert, with Gezani forecast to pass about 100 km off its coast on Monday evening, bringing winds of around 65 km/h but no heavy rainfall, the weather service said.
Another affected country, Mozambique, has also been hit by frequent weather-related disasters that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change.
The Southern African country is also recovering from severe flooding that affected more than 700,000 people and damaged over 170,000 homes in recent weeks, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mozambique’s weather service expects Cyclone Gezani to pass close to Inhambane any time from Friday afternoon, before moving back out into the Mozambique Channel.
People in Inhambane have been placing sandbags on their roofs to try to stop them being blown off by intense winds and barricading windows with sheets of corrugated iron.
Local authorities have restricted sailing, and fishermen are staying home.
“All sailors were informed that there will be strong winds and a cyclone. Today is our turn to fish but we are not doing it,” fisherman Jaime Neto said.
