Storm Freddy disrupts life

Tropical Storm Freddy landed into Malawi at the weekend characterised by incessant rains and winds that disrupted the course of life and forced Ministry of Education and private schools to suspend classes.

The cyclone has affected Chikwawa, Nsanje, Mulanje, Thyolo, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Mwanza, Blantyre, Neno and Zomba districts as well as some lakeshore districts since Friday.

The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said in a

 statement yesterday that as of Friday, the centre of the cyclone was 120 kilometres (km) away from Nsanje, but was sustaining wind speed of 130km per hour.

Reads the update in part: “Model projections are showing over 100 percent chance that the tropical cyclone will reach Southern Malawi this evening with torrential rainfall over exceeding 150mm in 24 hours on Sunday persisting into Monday and Tuesday.”

The impact of the cyclone also affected air travel as planes could not land at Chileka International Airport in Blantyre due to bad weather. First, a South Africa-bound Malawian Airlines flight had to abandon its stopover in Blantyre yesterday in mid air, returning to Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe. In the afternoon, passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight scheduled to disembark at Chileka were also forced to disembark at KIA.

Spot-checks in Blantyre City, one of the affected areas, revealed that there was low patronage in both churches and shopping centres as people took a cautious approach and remained in-doors.

Meanwhile, public and private schools have suspended classes in the affected districts today and tomorrow as a precautionary measure.

Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Chikondano Mussa said in a statement: “Learners in boarding schools are advised to stay indoors, as a measure of safety in order to preserve life.”

Private schools such as St. Andrew’s International, Blantyre Baptist Christian School, Mountview Primary, Alipo Private Primary School and St. Patrick’s International, among others, also issued similar statements yesterday.

Besides causing damage to infrastructure such as roads, electricity poles and houses, the effect of the storm also disrupted flights schedule at Chileka with airport commandant Brian Mussa saying they are challenged as they use Visual Landing System. He said the system makes it difficult to land in such weather conditions unlike the Instrument Landing System which the airport desperately needs to operate effectively.

“We had two planes on schedule this morning [yesterday], a Malawi Airlines Bombardier and a Boeing 737-800,” said Mussa.

The Bombardier, which was flying from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, managed to land at Chileka International Airport in the morning while the Boeing 737-800 failed to do so.

Malawi Airlines head of commercial services Charles Ng’ambi said aside from causing disturbances to passengers, the delay in flights and failure by the planes to land at Chileka has an economic effect on the company.

He said: “Because of the weather pattern, we failed to land after an attempt on our flight that left Lilongwe to Blantyre for Johannesburg.

“The loss is there because obviously there is a cost of fuel going back to Lilongwe and some passengers have not been able to make it to Johannesburg.”

A check with district disaster officers in Chikwawa, Nsanje and Phalombe revealed that despite the continuous rainfall, there were no reports of floods and serious damage to property or injury.

However, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) public relations manager Kitty Chingota in an interview acknowledged damage to electricity poles and street light poles, but said Escom was having challenges accounting for the damages or fixing the faults due to the continued adverse weather conditions.

She said: “The main challenge is that due to the adverse weather condition, we are failing to go out to clear the poles and work on the faults as water and electricity do not go together.

“This has resulted in our customers going two to four days without electricity, but this is mother nature and we can’t move until the situation stabilizes. We know this is a huge inconvenience and plead with our customers to bear with us.”

Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula said in collaboration with various humanitarian partners, the department has been coordinating preparedness and response interventions to reduce the impact of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.

He said: “We are sensitising communities in districts at risk as well as prepositioning of members of the national Search and Rescue Team comprising the Malawi Police Service, the Marine Department and the Malawi Red Cross Society.

“Standby arrangements have also been made for the deployment of personnel and equipment, including boats and an aircraft from the Malawi Defence Force.”

Between Saturday 8am to Sunday at 8am, Chididi station in Nsanje recorded the highest amounts 100.6mm of rainfall, Chichiri in Blantyre recorded 74.9mm, Makhanga Agriculture Station in Nsanje 55.0mm and Mimosa in Mulanje recorded 45.8mm.