This is an intensifying cyclone. There will be heavy rains over Mozambique. Some parts of South Africa's Mpumalanga and Northern provinces might be affected. All major rivers in the south of the country have flooded, forcing about 300,000 people to abandon their homes in three provinces. The Mozambican Government estimates that a total of 800,000 people have been affected across the country, with most of them in urgent need of food aid and assistance, according to the U.N. Families living in the Limpopo Valley had no food and little clean water, and outbreaks of dysentery were rampant.
Many people are at risk from water-borne disease, malaria, and malnourishment.
South African troops had been delivering food aid by helicopter to areas cut off by flooded roads, but flights were suspended Tuesday to give the exhausted pilots a rest after 12 days of continuous flying. The past weeks' deluge extends throughout southern Africa. At least 150 people have lost their lives in recent days, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes. In South Africa, about 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.