Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 17: Tropical Storm Freddy, which tore across Malawi in southeast Africa, left behind devastating destruction that claimed the lives of almost 300 people. According to Malawi’s Directorate of Disaster Management Affairs, the storm had killed close to 326 persons.
According to the authorities, throughout the search and rescue efforts, more than 30 Chilobwe residents have died and dozens more are still missing. Survival is a battle after Cyclone Freddy imprisoned survivors.
Shovels were used by rescuers earlier this week as they looked for survivors among the wreckage.
“As of yesterday, the death toll from this disaster has risen from 225 to 326,” Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said in the devastated southern region near the commercial hub Blantyre.
“The number of people displaced has more than doubled to 183,159, as has the number of households displaced, which now stands at 40,702,” he added.
While rescuers continued to look for victims of the floods and mudslides brought on by this week’s heavy rains on Thursday, Chakwera repeated his call for international assistance. As the army and police have been sent in to deal with the issue, more than 300 emergency shelters have been set up for survivors. The country has been put under a state of emergency and two weeks of national mourning.
Earlier, on Wednesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the loss of lives in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar from Cyclone Freddy.
