Cyclone Freddy Kills More Than 99 People In Malawi

More than 99 people were confirmed dead on Monday after Cyclone Freddy swept through Malawi’s southern districts.

The country’s Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba, told CNN that most of the deaths (85) happened in Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital. He said:

We have recorded 99 people dead in about seven councils, with Blantyre city as the highest with 85 dead and about 134 people in Blantyre alone hospitalized.

In response to the cyclone, Malawi’s government has declared a state of disaster in the southern region of the country.

According to BBC News, heavy rains accompanied by strong winds induced by the cyclone have destroyed houses, washed away roads and bridges, flattened crop fields and disrupted power generation.

The main referral hospital in Blantyre was struggling to cope with the large numbers of the bodies of the deceased it was receiving.

Bereaved families or whose relatives are missing were being urged to go to the hospital to identify and collect the bodies for burial, with space at the hospital running out.

Weather forecasters predicted the heavy rains and flooding will continue on Tuesday.

Cyclone Freddy was expected to begin withdrawing from Malawi back to the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

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