BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) 鈥� Cyclone Freddy has dissipated after killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands in Mozambique and Malawi since late last week, although flooding remains a threat in both countries, a regional monitoring center said late Wednesday.
The cyclone has killed at least 225 people in Malawi's southern region including Blantyre, the country's financial hub, according to local authorities. Another 88,000 people are displaced. In neighboring Mozambique, officials say at least 20 people have died since the storm made landfall in the port town of Quelimane on Saturday night. Over 45,000 people are still holed up in shelters, with about 1,300 square kilometers (800 square miles) still under water, according to the EU's Copernicus satellite system.
鈥淭here are many casualties 鈥� either wounded, missing, or dead and the numbers will only increase in the coming days," said Guilherme Botelho, the emergency project coordinator in Blantyre for Doctors Without Borders. Malawi, which has been battling a cholera outbreak, is at risk of a resurgence of the disease, Botelho said, "especially since the vaccine coverage in Blantyre is very poor.鈥�
The aid organization suspended outreach programs to protect its staff against flash floods and landslides but is supporting cyclone relief efforts at a local hospital.
Freddy was initially projected to exit back to the sea on Wednesday but has since waned and is no longer classed as a tropical cyclone, the United Nations鈥� weather monitoring center in R茅union said.
But even with the cyclone having dissipated, 鈥渢he emergency will not be over for many communities as rain from upland areas continues to flood downstream areas over the coming days,鈥� said Lucy Mwangi, the country director for Malawi at the aid organization Concern Worldwide.
鈥淓ven rich countries that are advanced democracies would have been no match for the level of destruction this cyclone has brought," said Kim Yi Dionne, a political scientist at the University of California Riverside. Freddy accumulated more energy over its journey across the Indian Ocean than an entire U.S. hurricane season.
Yi Dionne said that the scale of damage is despite Malawi's disaster agency having prepared and planned 鈥渇or the challenges that come with our contemporary climate crisis.鈥�
Scientists say climate change caused by mostly industrialized nations pumping greenhouse gases into the air , making them more intense and more frequent. The that impacts weather worldwide also increased cyclone activity in the region.
African nations, who only contribute about 4% of planet-warming emissions, are 鈥渙nce again paying the steepest price to climate change, including their own lives,鈥� said Lynn Chiripamberi, who leads Oxfam's southern Africa humanitarian program.
Cyclone Freddy has , pummeling Mozambique as well as the and R茅union last month.
鈥淔reddy is quite an exceptional weather phenomenon," Anne-Claire Fontan, a tropical cyclone scientific officer at the World Meteorological Organization told The Associated Press. Its longevity, distance covered, the number of times it has intensified and the amount of energy it accumulated over time has been extraordinary, she said.
She added that its second landfall in Mozambique "is explained by the presence of two competing steering influences. It is not rare.鈥�
Freddy first developed near Australia in early February. The U.N.'s weather agency has convened an expert panel to determine whether it has broken the record for the longest-ever cyclone in recorded history, which was set by 31-day Hurricane John in 1994.
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Alexandre Nhampossa and Tom Gould contributed to this report from Maputo, Mozambique. Kabukuru reported from Mombasa, Kenya.
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Vitus-gregory Gondwe And Wanjohi Kabukuru, The Associated Press
