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martyb writes:

Cyclone Idai: more than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique:

More than 1,000 people are feared dead in a devastating cyclone that hit Mozambique on Friday, the country's president has said.

Filipe Nyusi told Mozambican radio he had seen "many bodies" floating in the overflowing Pungwe and Busi rivers. "It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths," he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.

At least 215 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are missing across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe from Tropical Cyclone Idai, according to government agencies and the Red Cross, which said 1.5 million people had been affected.

A more precise death toll and the true scale of the damage is not likely to be known soon, as many areas are cut off.

"I think this is the biggest natural disaster Mozambique has ever faced. Everything is destroyed," Celso Correia, the environment minister, said. "Our priority now is to save human lives."

A British doctor who was in Beira when the cyclone hit and managed to get on a plane to Maputo on Sunday said he saw widespread damage to buildings, trees and power lines in the city. He said the poorest seemed to be the hardest hit.

"All those who were in reasonably built houses/ hotels during the storm who I heard about seemed to come through unscathed," Mark Ellul wrote from Johannesburg. "I did hear of casualties and fatalities from those I talked to, who were all in poorly built accommodation in the centre of the city. My thoughts were constantly with those people (the majority) who have poorly built houses and had to endure this horrific storm with very little shelter."

In images taken by the South African broadcaster eNCA , people were seen climbing trees and wading through waist-high water as ripped-off roofs and debris lay scattered across the city.

Also at Aljazeera and CNN.

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