The flood was expected to hit Xai-Xai city, home to more than 100,000 people, in Gaza province later on Wednesday. The province's second largest city, Chokwe, is already under water, threatening the region's crops. The floods have left 300,000 people in Mozambique dependent on food aid for the next three months at least, the country's national disaster institute has said. Neighboring South Africa has provided military helicopters to help in the rescue effort. After nearly two weeks of steady rains, human and cattle carcasses float through flooded streets.
Hundreds remain stranded on rooftops or perched in trees, waiting to be rescued.
In some places, survivors are forced to drink the filthy water coursing down the roads because the regular water systems have been contaminated. Many rural areas remain cut off from emergency workers, making it impossible to retrieve an accurate death toll or to deliver aid. Some of the worst hit areas are home to the region's poorest residents. In South Africa, some 120 shacks were swept away in squatter settlements in Alexandra, just north of Johannesburg. Multiple families often squeeze into these tiny homes, made of corrugated iron.