The article that caught my interest this week about Sub Saharan Africa was about Mozambique. The Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday. The cyclone was so strong the cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) and then it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros. It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and the storm came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the already impoverished nation. This former cyclone caused devastating floods and killed more than 1,000 people across a part of southern Africa. The World Food Programme in Mozambique warned that the Kenneth Cyclone could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days, which is twice the amount that was brought by Cyclone Idai. However, Mozambique was still unprepared. One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado said in a statement, while another person was injured. But also in rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud, therefore the storm completely destroyed all the houses. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in overcrowded shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said. This article really made me feel so sorry for Mozambique because with their poor economy, it is going to take that country so much money and time to rebuild that they just do not have. Especially since this is the second cyclone to happen within two months.
