At least nine people have died after Tropical Storm Eloise made landfall in Mozambique’s Sofala province on Saturday, January 23, according to DW.
The Mozambique National Institute of Meteorology (INAM) said the province received about 200mm of rain on Saturday, accompanied by winds of 130 kilometres per hour.
Many parts of Beira were flooded as the storm wreaked havoc, uprooting trees and blowing the roofs off houses in informal settlements.
CYCLONE ELOISE ALERT | LIMPOPO DISASTER MANAGEMENT ON ALERT AS CYCLONE APPROACHES
The disaster management team in Mopani district says it’s keeping an eye on several low-lying areas, including farms as they await tropical storm Eloise that expected to hit the province tonight pic.twitter.com/V3YF0ym9Dz
— KE SHARP (@danielmarven) January 23, 2021
Cyclone Eloise loses force and downgrades to tropical storm after hitting the coastal city of Beira in Mozambique causing less damage than expected pic.twitter.com/9dpqFyNeVZ
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) January 24, 2021
The coastal city of Beira in Mozambique, which houses one of the country’s most important ports, saw flooding & mild damage to property after tropical cyclone ‘Eloise’ made landfall early on January 23
The cyclone has since lost its strength & been downgraded to a tropical storm pic.twitter.com/LteTiKEMpo
— Prasar Bharati News Services पी.बी.एन.एस. (@PBNS_India) January 24, 2021
More photos from Beira (Mozambique) this morning after #CycloneEloise made landfall. Source: Ettiene Erasmus, Reenval SA FB pic.twitter.com/lK6e3moauy
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) January 23, 2021
The storm continued to move West across the country on Saturday night and is expected to impact the North Eastern parts of South Africa in the following days.
“Eloise is currently over the extreme northern parts of Limpopo resulting in heavy rain in some areas of Limpopo and Mpumalanga today and later northern KZN. The main concern will be rainfall. Winds will not be a major factor,” the South African Weather Service tweeted on Sunday morning.
Good morning. Depression #Eloise is currently over the extreme northern parts of Limpopo resulting in heavy rain in some areas of Limpopo and Mpumalanga today and later northern KZN. Main concern will be rainfall. Winds will not be a major factor. pic.twitter.com/8W0A52ckzD
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) January 24, 2021
SAWS forecaster Lulama Pheme told IOL that the threshold for heavy rain is 50 millimetres, but they are expecting between 100 to 300 millimetres.
“Lives could be lost to the flooding if residents are not cautious. The usual rainfall was expected for Durban. Areas which have experienced heavy rainfall would be overly saturated and prone to flooding from normal rainfall in the week,” said Pheme.
Picture: Twitter/SAWS