ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – The death toll in Madagascar from tropical cyclone Freddy has risen to four, the government said on Wednesday, as the storm moved west across the island nation toward mainland Africa.
Freddy made landfall in southeastern Madagascar late on Tuesday with gusts of up to 180 km per hour (110 miles per hour), flooding the area and ripping roofs off houses. Its arrival came nearly a month after storm Cheneso killed 33 people and forced thousands from their homes in Madagascar.
In a statement, the government’s National Office of Risks and Disasters revised the death toll up to four from one earlier. The storm has displaced 11,047 people, flooded 2,276 houses and destroyed another 2,267, it said.
After traversing Madagascar, Freddy could reappear in the Mozambique Channel, strengthening before making landfall in Mozambique and then potentially moving on to Zimbabwe, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The storm could affect more than 3.3 million people in total in Mozambique, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, OCHA said, citing a World Food Programme assessment.
(Reporting by Lovasoa Rabary; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Aaron Ross and Bernadette Baum)
