Cyclone death toll in Mozambique rises to 45

Cyclone death toll in Mozambique rises to 45
by AFP Staff Writers
Maputo (AFP) Dec 18, 2024

The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique has risen by 11 to 45, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management announced Wednesday.

Initial figures released on Tuesday said the cyclone had claimed 34 lives after making landfall in Mozambique on Sunday at the northern Cabo Delgado province.

In its updated toll, the centre said 38 people were killed in Cabo Delgado, four in Nampula province and three in Niassa, further inland. One person was missing, it said.

Nearly 500 people were reported injured by the cyclone, which brought winds of around 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour and heavy rainfall of around 250 millimetres (10 inches) in 24 hours, the centre said.

Nearly 24,000 homes were destroyed and another 12,300 partially destroyed, it said. More than 181,000 people affected by the storm.

Chido struck a part of northern Mozambique that is regularly battered by cyclones and is already vulnerable because of conflict and underdevelopment.

The cyclone landed in Mozambique after hitting the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where it is feared to have killed hundreds and possibly even thousands of people.

Climate change made Cyclone Chido stronger: scientists
Paris (AFP) Dec 18, 2024 - Climate change intensified Cyclone Chido as it barrelled toward the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, said a preliminary study by scientists studying the link between global warming and tropical storms.

The assessment by Imperial College London also estimated that cyclones of Chido's strength were 40 percent more likely in the warmer climate of 2024 compared to pre-industrial times.

Chido was the most damaging cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years when it made landfall Saturday, flattening tin-roof shacks in France's poorest overseas territory.

Classified as a category four storm -- the second highest on a five-point scale -- Cyclone Chido crossed the small archipelago, where about one-third of the population live in makeshift housing.

The true scale of the disaster is still unknown but officials fear the death toll could eventually rise into the thousands.

Scientists at Imperial College London assessed what role global warming might have played in whipping up the wind speed and ferocity of tropical storms like Chido.

To overcome a scarcity of real-world data, they used an advanced computer model that runs millions of simulated tropical cyclones to infer what might be attributed to recent warming.

They concluded that wind speeds in the region near where Chido made landfall had increased by 3 miles per second compared to the climate before humanity began burning fossil fuels.

Climate change "uplifted the intensity of a tropical cyclone like 'Chido' from a Category 3 to Category 4", the study said.

In the absence of conclusive studies, France's weather service has stopped short of attributing Chido's intensity to global warming, but says warmer oceans driven by human-caused climate change have made storms more violent.

Mayotte took the cyclone's full force and Meteo-France said Chido's impact was "above all the consequence of its trajectory" over the island.

The climate is nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer compared to the pre-industrial era, and scientists say this extra heat in the atmosphere and oceans is stoking more frequent and volatile weather events.

Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and warmer oceans cause greater evaporation, supercharging the conditions upon which tropical storms feed.