In Matua resettlement camp, Eliza Mapangue, a mother of six children, said: “It was a new experience and we did not know what to do.” She heard the warning on her daughter’s TV but went to the market anyway. It was difficult to say what they would do the next time because all the houses made of local materials collapsed, she said.

Otililia Luiz used to make a living selling bread and cold drinks on the streets of Beira. She heard the warning two days before on TV but on the day itself she decided “I will continue doing my business.” She went home early because the weather started to change. At 7 p.m. part of the roof collapsed and an hour later it was all gone.

She escaped with her husband and two relatives to the Beira Transport Company warehouse where about 500 other people also gathered. Many people were injured when the roof collapsed. They remained there pressed up against the walls until they escaped to the Samora Machel Secondary School where they remained for a week.

On reflection, she admits that she should not have gone but rather concentrated on saving what possessions she could, instead of losing everything including her TV and fridge, all her clothes and business stock.

Hortensia Mussalama (60) heard no warning and scrambled up a tree to escape the floodwaters holding on to her ten-year-old granddaughter whom she tied to her with cloth so she would not fall to her death in the floodwaters as she saw happen to two of her neighbours. They were in the tree for five days without food or water until they were rescued.

One woman summed up the situation. “The next time the warning must be early and the people evacuated to a safe place.”

Date:

4 Oct 2019

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Hazards:

Cyclone

Countries:

India, Mozambique

Regions:

Africa, Asia