By Ray Mwareya and Nyasha Bhobo
CHIMANIMANI, Zimbabwe, Jan 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When tropical storm Chalane threatened Zimbabwe and Mozambique late last year, government authorities and aid agencies sprang into action, having learned lessons from the destruction and loss of life caused by cyclones in 2019.
That year, two consecutive cyclones – Idai in March and Kenneth in April – brought unusually heavy rains and high winds, causing more than 1,000 deaths across southern Africa and affecting nearly 4 million people.
In late December 2020, ahead of Chalane’s arrival in Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe, it was feared lives, property and infrastructure might be hit hard again.
In the end, the storm weakened and did not cause widespread damage – but measures taken to keep people safe ahead of time suggested disaster prevention efforts have started to move forward in the region.
In Zimbabwe, plans were implemented to protect people by sending out information and evacuating them to shelters in designated schools, churches and public halls.
“We were fearful – undecided whether to sit out the storm in our homes or climb on buses to rescue zones,” said Amos Myambo, a trader in eastern Zimbabwe’s mountainous Chimanimani district, whose grocery shop was swept away during Idai. “We chose the rescue centres.”
About 600 villagers were ferried for free by state buses, private tractors or lorries to assembly points, where they were registered and then taken to evacuation centres, according to a Chimanimani district official.
Crucially, about 150 people still living in camps after Idai were also given shelter at two missionary schools, the U.N. office in Zimbabwe noted.
In Beira and Sofala provinces in neighbouring Mozambique, some residents of vulnerable areas moved on their own to shelters near their homes, according to Susan Mbalu, spokeswoman for the Africa division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Mozambique Red Cross provided advance warning of the storm to local people, as it usually does, but went a step further, providing training and distribution of kits to reinforce homes and schools ahead of Chalane’s arrival.
Support was provided after weather forecasts triggered the release of emergency funding for what the Red Cross calls “early action” ahead of a potential disaster.
The roofs and walls of 210 huts in camps for people resettled after previous weather disasters were reinforced with tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and piles of sand, said Mbalu.
This measure, rolled out 72 hours ahead of the storm, was deployed in Buzi district, south of Beira, where more than half the province’s vulnerable population lives, she added.
Despite these efforts, the International Organization for Migration said about 4,940 families at resettlement sites had their tents and shelters destroyed or partially destroyed by Chalane, and required help for the rest of the rainy season.
