After causing 21 deaths and displacing thousands of people in its path, Tropical Cyclone Freddy is one month old and is about to break the record for the longest duration on record. The current record is from Hurricane John, which lasted 31 days in 1994, reported Tuesday the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Freddy developed off the coast of northern Australia and became a named storm on February 6. It crossed the entire South Indian Ocean, making landfall in Madagascar on February 21, and then in Mozambique on February 24.
The storm passed several days over Mozambique and Zimbabwe, causing heavy rains and flooding. It then turned back towards the Mozambique Channel, where it picked up energy from the warm waters and moved towards the southwest coast of Madagascar.
According to the WMO, it is now moving away from Madagascar and is expected to intensify as it moves back towards Mozambique.
Freddy may make landfall as a tropical cyclone by the end of the week, if so, it would set the record for the duration of such a storm.
“At this time, it appears that it will have the mark, but we continue to monitor the situation,” the WMO said in a statement.
Early warnings prevent further human losses
The director of Services of the UN agency, Johan Stander, indicated that the phenomenon is having a great socioeconomic and humanitarian impact in affected communities.
However, he added that although the meteor has left 21 people dead, the number of victims has not been too high. thanks to the accuracy of forecasts, early warningsand coordinated disaster risk reduction actions.
In this regard, he emphasized the importance of the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative, which seeks to ensure that the entire population is protected in the next five years.
The destruction
Preliminary data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) list four people who died in Madagascar due to recent rains, bringing the total number to eleven. In addition, 3,100 people have been displaced and more than 3,300 houses were flooded or destroyed.
Meanwhile, in Mozambique ten deaths have been reported and the authorities estimate that there are 1.75 million homeless and more than 8,000 displaced. The country registered floods even before the passage of Freddy.
Relief agencies carry out a humanitarian operation in the region, and warn that the situation it will get worse once Freddy makes landfall again.
“Extraordinary” storm
The World Meteorological Organization referred to Freddy as an “extraordinary” storm: “This type of meteor with a trajectory through multiple and extensive areas is very rare. The most recent documented cases were the tropical cyclones Leon-Beline and Hudah, both of which occurred in the year 2000,” he said.
The agency highlighted that, as is the case now, 2000 was a year of occurrence of the La Niña phenomenon, the same as now in 2023”, the agency pointed out.
The WMO also stressed that Freddy has already set a record: that of highest cumulative cyclone energy in the history of recorded storms in the southern hemisphere. Accumulated cyclone energy is the amount of wind energy produced over the life of a cyclone.
