ISLAMABAD/MAPUTO: Cyclone Freddy pummeled Mozambique for the second time in two weeks on Saturday, killing one person, ripping roofs off houses and causing a lockdown in one port town, local media said.
Freddy – one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the southern hemisphere – began sweeping onshore by 10pm local time (2000 GMT), according to satellite data, after hours of battering the southern African coast with rain.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the storm made landfall in Mozambique in the Quelimane district of the central Zambezia province as a tropical cyclone. It warned there was a high risk of flooding in Zambezia and neighbouring Nampula province, adding that water levels at several river basins were already above the alert level.
State broadcaster TVM said one person died when his house collapsed, and that the electricity had been completely switched off by the power utility as a precaution, with all flights also suspended.
It was the second time the cyclone struck the country since it was named after being spotted near Indonesia on February 6. It comes two weeks after 27 people died when the storm first made landfall.
The longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever
Having swirled for 34 days, the weather system is expected to have broken the record for the longest-lasting tropical cyclone.
As per the World Meteorological Organization, the previous record was held by a hurricane in 1994 which lasted for 31 days.
