Cyclone Freddy makes landfall in Mozambique, again

Heavy winds and rains lashed the eastern parts of Mozambique on Saturday as tropical cyclone Freddy made landfall at the South African country for the second time in two weeks. 

Flood risks in several regions

"Freddy made landfall in Mozambique in Quelimane district, Zambezia province, as a tropical cyclone," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

It also said there was a high risk of flooding in Zambezia and Nampula provinces, with water levels at several river basins already above alert levels. 

"There is already quite substantial flooding," Guy Taylor, spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF, told the AFP news agency from Quelimane earlier on Saturday. "We saw people with water in their houses, wading through knee-deep water. And that's just with this initial bit of rain." 

Mozambique is still reeling from last month's flooding on Freddy's first pass and has been battling to contain a cholera outbreak since September. Cholera is generally transmitted via the consumption of contaminated food or water.

The UN- and EU-led disaster alert system has issued a red alert saying some 2.3 million people could be affected.

Second pass over Mozambique for long-lived storm

Freddy is on its way to being the longest-lasting cyclone on record, having taken a looping trajectory that meteorologists say is rare. 

It crossed the entire Southern Indian Ocean and battered Madagascar from February 21, then crossed the island to hit Mozambique on February 24. Freddy then headed back towards Madagascar before moving, once more, towards Mozambique. 

Currently, Freddy is only the third major storm known to have lasted more than 22 days, according to US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Carl Schreck. Hurricane John in 1994 and an unnamed Atlantic hurricane in 1899 are the other two. 

French weather agency Meteo-France said that the cyclone was unlikely to weaken over land in the coming week and had a high probability of exiting back into the sea. Meteo-France said it had made landfall in Mozambique with maximum speeds of 155 kilometers per hour (just under 100 miles per hour),and warned that "destructive and devastating" winds and "dangerous seas and heavy rains" could lead to landslides.

Freddy's first pass over southeastern Africa last month damaged roughly 28,000 homes and affected around 166,000 people. The storm is thought to have killed at least 27 — 10 in Mozambique and 17 in Madagascar. 

mk/msh (AFP, AP)