Southern Africa Floods and Cyclones Fact Sheet #1

The storm was followed by Tropical Cyclone Funso, which tracked close to the Mozambican coast without making landfall, but brought heavy rains and resulted in floods in Zambézia Province in central Mozambique and Nsanje District in southern Malawi. As of February 17, the combined effects of Tropical Storm Dando and Tropical Cyclone Funso had affected nearly 120,000 people in Mozambique, according to the U.N. Tropical Cyclone Giovanna made landfall on the eastern coast of Madagascar on February 14, resulting in strong winds that affected many densely populated areas, including the capital, Antananarivo, and caused significant damage to Brickaville and Vatomandry districts in central-eastern Madagascar. As of February 20, Tropical Cyclone Giovanna had resulted in at least 25 deaths, 90 persons injured, and 263,000 people affected, according to the Government of Madagascar National Disaster Risk Management Office (BNGRC). The USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) conducted assessments of the heavily affected Brickaville and Vatomandry districts in Madagascar, finding that the cyclone most severely affected rural communities and that most storm-related damage in affected areas resulted from high wind speeds rather than from flooding. The assessments also identified shelter as the most urgent humanitarian need among populations in Madagascar affected by Tropical Cyclone Giovanna. In response to the floods and cyclones, USAID/OFDA and USAID's Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP) have provided more than $2 million in humanitarian assistance in southern Africa. The assistance primarily consists of emergency food assistance and emergency relief commodities that address immediate humanitarian needs, including plastic sheeting that USAID/OFDA had pre-positioned in Madagascar in anticipation of potential shelter needs during the annual cyclone season. The Malagasy Red Cross Society (MRCS), with support from the French Red Cross, plans to distribute 2,000 shelter kits to meet the emergency shelter needs of 2,000 cyclone-affected families, or approximately 10,000 people. USAID/OFDA staff noted a lack of safe drinking water in some areas, but households in affected areas have access to point-of-use water treatment products, such as Sûr’Eau, a chlorine solution developed by USAID/OFDA partner Population Services International (PSI), to disinfect water for consumption. In Mozambique, shelter is one of the most pressing humanitarian needs, according to the U.N. As of February 17, floods had destroyed or damaged approximately 20,000 homes throughout Mozambique, mainly in Zambézia Province, the Government of Mozambique reported. The Shelter Cluster has distributed emergency shelter and other relief items to the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly, child-headed households, people with chronic diseases, and people living with disabilities. The U.N. has noted that poor sanitation conditions, some of which pre-date the recent floods, may result in increased transmission of water- and vector-borne diseases, such as diarrheal illnesses and malaria. The Health Cluster is conducting hygiene promotion campaigns and supporting the use of chlorine-based water treatment products to prevent increased disease transmission. USAID/OFDA has provided $50,000 to PSI to procure and distribute point-of-use water treatment products that allowed flood-affected populations to disinfect water for consumption. In response to identified shelter and WASH needs, USAID/OFDA airlifted 1,200 rolls of plastic sheeting and 8,000 water containers from its warehouse in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Mozambique on February 10. USAID/OFDA also provided $400,000 to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to distribute the USAID/OFDA relief commodities to more than 25,000 people in heavily affected Gaza, Inhambane, and Zambézia provinces.