Tropical Cyclone Chido has weakened and Malawi may at the moment be out of danger, but it has left a trail of devastation in some parts of the country, including killing two people.
In an interview yesterday, Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (MET) director Lucy Mtilatila said as of 5pm yesterday, the cyclone had already moved out of the country.
She said it was unlikely that Chido, which made a landfall in Nacala, Mozambiqu, on Sunday morning, will have any further impact in Malawi.
closing stage | Nation
“The heavy rainfall and strong winds that some parts of the country may be experiencing will be influenced by other patterns and not Tropical Cyclone Chido because it has reached a closing stage,” said Mtilatila.
The cyclone was forecasted to hit Mangochi, Machinga, Balaka, Zomba, Mwanza, Neno, Mulanje, Phalombe, Thyolo, Blantyre, Chiradzulu, Nsanje and Chikwawa in the Southern Region as well as Ntcheu and Dedza in the Central Region.
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma), in a statement signed by its commissioner Charles Kalemba, stated that as at 11.30am yesterday, about 8 100 people were affected by the cyclone.
The cyclone, which was later downgraded to a moderate tropical storm, has killed one person in Blantyre and another one in Machinga.
The storm has also damaged public infrastructure such as school blocks and a maternity block at Mfela Health Centre in Chikwawa.
Of the affected districts, Machinga topped the list with 650 affected households followed by Phalombe with 305 affected households in Traditional Authority (T/As) Jenala and Nyezelera, according to Dodma.
Reads the Dodma statement: “Blantyre District Council reports that a total of 270 households have been affected, with one death caused by collapsing walls recorded.
“In Neno, a total of 84 houses have been damaged in T/A Symon. Roads leading to Matandani, Matope, Msambo and Dambe health centres have been rendered impassable.”
In an interview yesterday, Machinga district information officer Martin Chiwanda said the death was recorded in the area of T/A Kapoloma in Ntaja area and that an assessment was still underway.
“The impact is not huge as anticipated, but on a sad note, we have lost a life and property,” he said.
In a separate interview, Mulanje district commissioner David Maxwell Gondwe said about 186 households from T/A Juma have been affected, while 13 others from T/A Nkanda have also been affected.
In Blantyre City, the storm damaged several billboards, including one belonging to Electricity Generation Company celebrating restoration of 129.6megawatts a Kapichira Power Plant with President Lazarus Chakwera’s image.
In March 2023, Malawi experienced one of the worst tropical cyclones on record which developed in the Western Indian Ocean and moved eastwards from Mozambique, influencing torrential rains over the Southern part of Malawi.
Dodma data showed that at least 2.2 million people were affected, including more than 659 000 who were displaced while over 530 were declared missing by mid-March 2023.
