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Zimbabwe Situation

No Roofs, No Roads, No Bread: Cyclone Devastates Parts of Southeastern Africa 

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Cyclone Idai brought punishing rains and winds to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, causing a humanitarian emergency as severe as those in war zones.

Source: No Roofs, No Roads, No Bread: Cyclone Devastates Parts of Southeastern Africa – The New York Times

Cyclone Idai triggered flooding across a wide swath of coastal Mozambique, washing away bridges, roads and homes, and leaving people stranded on the banks of a river in the village of John Segredo on Sunday.CreditCreditMike Hutchings/Reuters

People in parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi began to pick through the wreckage left behind by Cyclone Idai, a category four storm that brought weeks of rain, floods and high winds to a swath of southeastern Africa.

Mozambique was hit especially hard. The government said that at least 400 people have died. Rescue workers say that thousands more may have been swept out to sea as the floodwaters rose. Their bodies may never be found.

At least 600,000 people have been displaced, according to the United Nations World Food Program, which deemed the crisis a level three emergency on par with war-torn Yemen, Syria and South Sudan.

Water and food are in short supply. The first cases of cholera have been reported by the Red Cross in Beira, a coastal city that bore the brunt of the storm. Aid efforts have been hampered by washed-out roads and bridges, leaving many residents to fend for themselves.

From the remnants of his home, Francisco Simon looked out at his daughters as they went off to sleep in a shelter in Buzi, Mozambique on Friday.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Lining up to buy bread in Beira, Mozambique, on Sunday after the cyclone left hundreds of thousands of people without food or water.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Lining up to buy bread in Beira, Mozambique, on Sunday after the cyclone left hundreds of thousands of people without food or water.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sleeping on the street in Buzi, Mozambique, on Saturday after losing their homes to the cyclone.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sleeping on the street in Buzi, Mozambique, on Saturday after losing their homes to the cyclone.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
After passing through Mozambique, the cyclone hit the Chimanimani district of Zimbabwe, sweeping away cars and debris, cutting off roads and impeding the emergency response.CreditPhilimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Families who lost their homes in Tica, Mozambique, to the hurricane-force winds and flooding rains of Cyclone Idai were evacuated to a tent camp.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Flood waters began to recede in Buzi, Mozambique, on Sunday, and residents tried to remake their lives.CreditMike Hutchings/Reuters
Joaquin João Chidja, 16, laid out his family photos to dry on a rooftop where he took shelter in Buzi on Saturday.CreditYasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A pilot loaded empty coffins for victims of Cyclone Idai into a helicopter near Chipinge, Zimbabwe, on Sunday.CreditAaron Ufumeli/EPA, via Shutterstock
Members of a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation held a service outside a private home in Chipinge on Sunday after their church building was destroyed by the cyclone.CreditKb Mpofu/Associated Press
After more than two weeks of rain, low-lying areas like Buzi were devastated. Emergency personnel are now beginning to deliver aid to rural areas that have been cut off from help.CreditAndrew Renneisen/Getty Images

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