Mozambique floods kill 29, thousands left homeless
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mozambique floods kill 29, thousands left homeless*
Reuters
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; 7:18 AM
MAPUTO (Reuters) - Floods in Mozambique have killed 29 people and
wrecked thousands of homes after torrential rain and hurricanes swept
through the country in the past two weeks, the government said on Wednesday.
It said it had warned thousands of people living by the country's main
rivers, including the lower banks of the Zambezi which runs from
southern Angola across southern Africa to the Indian Ocean, to evacuate.
"Strong winds, flooding and rains... have caused 29 deaths, total
destruction and partial destruction of 4,677 houses, 111 classrooms, 4
health posts serving 46,500," the Mozambique government said in a
statement printed by Maputo daily newspaper Noticias.
The floods hit both northern and southern regions after rain and heavy
winds battered the country for the past two weeks.
"We are facing a situation that is likely to reach alarming
proportions," the statement said, adding regions near the country's main
rivers were at particular risk.
Noticias said thousands of people living in high-risk areas had defied
government orders by not evacuating the area.
Authorities from Mozambique, Angola and Zambia last month warned of a
humanitarian crisis after deadly floods submerged towns, devastated
crops and left thousands of villagers without shelter, food or water.
More than 700 people died in Mozambique in 2000 and 2001 when heavy
flooding swept through the central and southern regions of the former
Portuguese colony.