BEIRA (April 23, 2019) —A storm brewing in the Indian Ocean may form another tropical cyclone and strike Mozambique causing further destruction, CARE experts warned today.
According to weather monitoring services, Tropical Storm Kenneth may bring “life-threatening weather” with wind speeds of up to 105 mph to northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands and Tanzania over the coming days.
“At least 700,000 people are at risk within the region of Cabo Delgado if this storm makes landfall as forecasted,” said Marc Nosbach, CARE Mozambique’s country director.
“Aside from storm damage, the greatest risk will immediately be from flooding due to heavy rains. Rivers within this region of Mozambique may flood, especially as at least one of the dams is already close to full capacity, preventing flood water from being retained. This will make it almost impossible to distribute aid as roads will become impassable,” he explained.
The southeastern Africa region has barely had time to recover from the effects of Cyclone Idai, which hit in March and killed more than 1,000 people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
“This would be a double whammy of disasters,” Nosbach continued. “Existing relief resources for Idai are not sufficient as things stand. Due to the funding situation our teams are stretched beyond their capacity and responding to another disaster in Mozambique without more resources will be very difficult, if not impossible. Nonetheless, CARE and it’s COSACA consortium partners are deploying an assessment team to areas likely to be affected by the coming cyclone and support distribution of dwindling pre-positioned stocks.”
About CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. That’s why women and girls are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve education and health, create economic opportunity, respond to emergencies and confront hunger. Last year CARE worked in 93 countries and reached more than 63 million people around the world. Learn more at care.org.
Media Contact:
Nicole Harris, 404-735-0871, nharris@care.org