Another tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall onMozambique's coast on Thursday, just over a month after a more powerful stormstruck the Mozambican port city of Beira further south and killed hundreds ofpeople.
Weather forecasters say Cyclone Kenneth will bring heavyrainfall, strong winds and waves of several metres to the southern Africannation, which is still reeling from the effects of devastating Cyclone Idai.
International energy companies such as Exxon Mobil have beendeveloping huge natural gas fields off the coast of northern Mozambique.
"It's going to make landfall tomorrow afternoon in CaboDelgado (province), on the northeastern coast of Mozambique, and it is going tobe a cyclone with wind speeds which could be 140 km per hour (87 miles perhour)," said Jan Vermeulen, from the South African Weather Service.
A cyclone report issued by a regional cyclone-monitoringcentre on the French island of La Reunion said parts of southern Tanzania couldalso be affected by Cyclone Kenneth.
Mozambique's National Institute of Disaster Management said that about 682,500 people could be at risk from the storm in the northern Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces. About 112,000 people were in areas where winds could be in excess of 120 km per hour, it said.
Official Precautions
The rivers Rovuma, Messalo, Montepuez, Megaruma, Lurio andcoastal waterways in Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces could overflow,affecting more than 70,000 people, according to a separate presentation fromthe National Directorate for the Management of Water Resources.
The directorate issued a recommendation that people livingin areas at risk should move immediately to high ground, while disaster managementofficial Augusta Maita said warnings were being broadcast in local media.
The International Federation of the Red Cross said itsvolunteers in northern Mozambique were alerting communities in areas whereconcerns of flooding, erosion and landslides were high. The World FoodProgramme said it was working with other agencies and the Mozambican governmenton an emergency plan.
More than 1,000 people were reported killed by Cyclone Idaiin Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
That storm lashed Beira with wind speeds of up to 170 km perhour on March 14 and heavy rains prompted flooding which submerged entirevillages. Mozambican health officials and international aid agencies have beenbattling cholera in the wake of the cyclone.
