April 26, 2019

Last month, in March, Tropical Cyclone Idai struck the southeastern coast of Africa. One of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, Idai caused catastrophic landslides and flooding that killed more than 1,000 people in Mozambique and in neighboring Malawi and Zimbabwe. The storm left more than 300,000 people homeless and led to deadly outbreaks of cholera and increased cases of malaria. More than a month later, thousands of people remain missing in affected areas, and government and international aid agencies continue to struggle to provide badly needed food, water, and medical supplies.

On March 23, 2019, residents of Beira, a coastal city in central Mozambique, survey the damage done by Cyclone Idai. Credit: © Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP/Getty Images

Cyclone Idai formed as a tropical depression over the warm waters of the southwestern Indian Ocean in early March. The storm intensified into a cyclone as it struck central Mozambique on March 4. Torrential rains and deadly winds whipped coastal areas for days as Idai spun along the Mozambique Channel between the African mainland and the island of Madagascar. Idai varied in strength, until reaching peak intensity with winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour on March 14. After 17 days of damage and deluge, the storm finally weakened and dissipated on March 21.

This satellite image shows Cyclone Idai in the Mozambique Channel on March 14, 2019. Credit: NASA

The broad and determined storm reached inland to Malawi and Zimbabwe and pelted coastal areas of Madagascar. The storm extensively damaged or destroyed vital infrastructure, including communication networks, hospitals, roads, sanitation facilities, and schools. Wide swaths of farmland were ruined, portions of forests were flattened by high winds, and flooding created a temporary inland sea in Mozambique that measured some 80 miles (130 kilometers) long and 15 miles (24 kilometers) wide. Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi called Cyclone Idai a “humanitarian disaster of great proportion.”

Mozambique. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Mozambique’s typically able Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades (National Disasters Management Institute) was overwhelmed by the scale of Idai’s destruction, and an urgent note verbale (formal diplomatic notice) went out requesting international help. The Red Cross and Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, and several United Nations organizations came to the rescue, as did the European Union and the governments of Canada, France, Portugal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Cyclone Idai was the seventh tropical cyclone of the Indian Ocean season, more than twice the average for this time of year. Globally, high-intensity storms have been occurring more frequently in recent years, a trend directly related to climate change. Global warming increases sea temperatures, creating more moisture and instability in the atmosphere—factors crucial to the birth of dangerous cyclones and hurricanes. Tropical cyclones need high humidity and surface water temperatures of 79 °F (26 °C ) or higher to form. Melting glaciers and ice have increased global sea levels, resulting in more frequent and intense flooding in coastal areas around the world.

November 11, 2013

Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a state of national calamity yesterday in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. He issued a statement that thousands of survivors are desperately waiting for aid to reach them in the two worst-affected provinces, Leyte and Samar. Friday’s massive cyclone left widespread destruction and loss of life on both islands. Tacloban, the Leyte provincial capital with a population is 200,000, is nearly leveled. Authorities fear that thousands of people died in Tacloban alone. On the island of Samar, the small city of Guiuan was also largely destroyed. Relief workers told a BBC correspondent that areas in the far north of Cebu province suffered “80 to 90 percent” destruction.

The Philippine government estimates that the storm has affected some 9.5 million people—about 10 percent of the nation—and displaced more than 600,000 people. Entire regions are without food, water, and medical supplies. The head of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon, described the situation as “absolute bedlam,” and Jane Cocking, the humanitarian director for Oxfam, told the BBC that her colleagues witnessed “complete devastation. . . entire parts of the coastline just disappeared.” (Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working to find solutions to poverty and related injustice worldwide.) A team of 90 U.S. Marines and sailors based in Okinawa, Japan, landed in the Philippines yesterday to assess how the U.S. Department of Defense might best aid in the relief effort.

Meteorologists have confirmed that Haiyan was one of the strongest storms in recorded history. It smashed into the central Philippines On November 8 with sustained winds of 147 miles (235 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 190 miles (305 kilometers) per hour. The winds drove tsunami-like storm surges that were 40-feet- (12-meters-) high in places, leveling everything in their paths. In some areas, as much as 15.75 inches (400 millimeters) of rain fell, triggering massive flooding.

Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in Vietnam this morning, much weakened but, nevertheless, with sustained winds of 85 miles (140 kilometers) per hour.

Additional World Book articles:

• The Forecast: Better Weather Prediction Ahead (a special report)
• How the Ocean Affects Climate (a special report)