A dark, disastrous night after storm Ana

Shattered homes. Power lines crashing to the ground. Floods sweeping anything its way. Malawians across the Southern Region woke up to untold devastation caused in the night when stormy torrents halted turbines down the Shire River.

Malawi received non-stop rains and heavy winds since Sunday night when Cyclone Ana landed in Mozambique, sending shattering whirls across the Shire Valley and surrounding districts.

However, the nationwide sting of the windstorm from the Indian Ocean came on Monday evening when floods disrupted electricity generation—the source of 99 percent of grid power.

When the nation emerged from the tempestuous night yesterday morning, destruction was unmistakable in the worst-hit zones, including Mulanje where one was confirmed dead and thousands left homeless by the third severe flooding since 2015.

There trail of destruction was also prevalent on the southern tip, where homes, crops, trees, power lines, roads and bridges had fallen.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) reports that the moderate tropical storm caused extensive damage in four districts Mulanje, Phalombe as well as the Lower Shire districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje. However, the damage could be worse as reports from councils were still trickling in, with some areas left unreachable.

“Reports from Mulanje indicate that one person has died and 30 have sustained various degrees of injuries following Ana-induced heavy rains that have led to flooding and collapsed houses,” reported Dodma.

On Monday evening, the Ministry of Education suspended schooling throughout the stormy days to avoid a worse catastrophe as the cyclone whirled past Malawi.

However, the disruption could be longer for children in the affected communities where the displaced have taken shelter in schools, churches and public halls.

In Chikwawa, heavy flooding left thousands destitute in communities under chiefs Lundu, Kasisi, Maseya, Mulilima and Ngowe.

However, the movement of people and goods was interrupted when floodwater cut-off the M1, the country’s largest transport corridor, at Thabwa and Nchalo as did Cyclone Idai in March 2019.

 “Reports also indicate that Chapananga Bridge on the Chikwawa-Mwanza Road has its approaches cut-off,” Dodma confirmed.

In Nsanje, Makhanga and Nyachikadza were rendered inaccessible, complicating search and rescue operations in the two areas where some survivors were feared to be trapped in the middle of floods.

As rapid assessments got underway in ravaged areas, Dodma spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula said the department has deployed a team comprising soldiers, police, marine and Red Cross to save people in tricky zones.

Dodma has also established an emergency operation centre in Blantyre, to coordinate the national response to the human crisis.

The storm is over

Lucy Mtilatila, acting director for the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services, said the country was no longer in the eye of the storm.

According to the weather expert, this means Malawi has seen off the worst impact of the storm, which has whirled to western Mozambique on the way to Zimbabwe.

“The threat is now minimal and the sky will clear by Thursday,” she said in an interview as the country was rising from the rainy rage and rubble.

However, she forecast that the country to continue receiving rains today due will shifts in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.

“As such, those who have left flood-prone areas should not go back immediately to their designated places because there are still some remaining rains to come,” Mtilatila warned.

Julius Ng’oma, the national coordinator of the Civil Society Network on Climate Change, hailed Dodma and the weather department for triggering early warning systems and swiftly sharing information to avert a worse disaster.

He said: “We need to improve on preparedness in terms of communities and districts so that we register minimal damages when disasters occur.”

He asked government to invest more in making vital infrastructure—including utilities, roads and housing—climate proof.

“We can learn from other countries, they experience so many cyclones, but their infrastructure still stands,” said Ng’oma.

Fragile utilities

The disaster disrupted water and telecommunication services all day due to power blackouts caused by extensive damage at Kapichira Hydropower Generation Plant in Chikwawa.

In an interview, Electricity Generation Company spokesperson Moses Gwaza said “it was too early to tell the extent of the damage” as engineers were hard at work to restore power.

Similarly, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) said the grid had suffered huge damage with some of its towers, poles and lines washed away and submerged.

Escom spokesperson Innocent Chitosi said it will take few days to ascertain the damage in power transmission and distribution as some areas were still inaccessible when repairs started yesterday around 5am.

“We have started restoring power and we believe we shall reach out to all customers today (Tuesday). Customers are affected negatively as they have no power supply for their businesses or for domestic needs,” he said.

Escom supplies electricity to about 11 percent of the country’s population, according to the 2018 census.

“The disaster has largely overwhelmed mitigating measures and technology that we put in place,” Chitosi stated, saying the power supplier was “doing everything possible” to normalise the situation.

Similarly, water supply in Blantyre and Lilongwe was disrupted by the emergency power outage.

Tropical Cyclone Ana has struck barely three years since Cyclone Idai hit about one million people in the country, killing 59, wounding 672 and displacing 87 000.