Floods report

Cyclone Hudah remained off the Mozambique coast on Friday five days after ravaging the northeast sector of Madagascar.

The South African Weather Bureau said the weather front had remained "semi-stationary" offshore overnight and was following "a slow, but complex and unpredictable track". It said the eye of the storm was unlikely to reach the coast for at least 24 hours.

In Madagascar, where the latest death toll on Friday was put at 20, a spokesman for the country's disaster agency, the Conseil national de securite (CNS), told IRIN rapid assessment teams would spend the weekend assessing the devastation caused by the "most powerful cyclone of its kind" to hit the island. Malagasy newspapers reported concerns about a new cholera
outbreak at Mahajanga, a major coastal city on the northwest of the island.

In Cape Town, finance ministers from Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, four southern African states hit by floods in February and March, decided on a joint strategy to secure relief funds from donor nations.

"We need a sense of togetherness in seeking funds, especially for those countries worse off than others," South African Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau told a news conference.

MADAGASCAR

The toll

As of Friday, 20 people were reported to have died. The CNS said they included five people who were aboard a boat which sank when the cyclone struck.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said at least 303,000 people, 61,000 of them children under five, had been affected by the storm when it brought heavy rains and winds of up to 320 kmh across the northern sector of the giant Indian Ocean island.

In its latest report, OCHA said preliminary surveys showed at least 100,000 people were in need of emergency assistance. This figure includes 13,000 children, according to UNICEF.

The areas worst affected

The latest report compiled by the French chapter of Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), UNICEF and the CNS said on Friday that the eye of storm was 40 km wide when it hit Antalaha, and moved on to the nearby towns of Andapa and Maroantsetra. Further details can be seen on an MSF-supported website at
http://www.lk-oi.com/hudah

Antalaha

OCHA described Antalaha, a town with 173,334 people, and surrounding villages as "severely damaged". In Antalaha, up to 95 percent of infrastructure including churches, schools and clinics were destroyed.

"The airport terminal and its telecommunication facilities are damaged. It is worth noting, however, that the alert was given ahead of time so that power lines could be shut down," the OCHA report said.

Dr Sergio Soro, UNICEF Representative in Madagascar, told IRIN: "Antalaha is by far the worst, with most the homes destroyed. It is entirely without drinking water or electricity, and all the places nearby are flooded." Its renowned vanilla and pepper crops were totally destroyed, he added after a
visit to the area. "I have never seen anything like this in 30 years of humanitarian work," Soro said. The CNS told IRIN troops were being dispatched to Antalaha to assist with emergency operations.

Maroantsetra

In Maroantsetra, a town with a population of 147,900, some 100 km south of Antalaha, OCHA said only the airport runway and the main street had remained passable. "Most villages are flooded or isolated by water. The (assessment) team estimated that 75 percent of the total district population is affected
by the cyclone, of whom 20 percent are children under five," the report said.

Andapa

In Andapa, a town of 136,000 people some 80 km inland from Antalaha, OCHA said at least half the population had been affected.

Mahajanga

Although humanitarian survey teams were still to check the situation across the island along the west coast at Mahajanga, the daily 'Midi Madagasikara' on Friday reported a new cholera outbreak.

"Gutters and canals in 11 neighbourhoods of the City of Flowers are simply overflowing now following the passing of cyclone Hudah," it said. "A mire of stagnant waters has become fertile ground for cholera". By 1 April, before the passage of the new cyclone, it said already 533 people had died of cholera in area hit by the two earlier cyclones. It said the NGO Catholic
Relief Services (CRS) was building public latrines and educating people on the dangers of cholera.

Food

WFP said it had food stockpiled in the region which it would start distributing to areas cut off by flood waters using two helicopters funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Assistance

The United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) is opening operational centres in Antalaha and Maroantsetra to support relief coordination and assistance. WFP will assign a logistics expert and a programme officer at the UN centre in Antalaha, and UNICEF said it was sending a water sanitation officer. In Maroantsetra, WFP will provide a logistics expert and UNICEF a
medical doctor. The UN Resident Coordinator may assign a field relief coordinator for each of the two centres for three months if resources are quickly obtained.

Relief Needs

The United Nations said it would shortly issue a flash appeal for immediate needs for tents, food, blankets, health kits, water purification tablets and building materials.
The UNDMT reiterated a need for two medium-size planes and two light helicopters, to be managed by WFP. It said four rubber boats were also required to reach the flooded areas.

MOZAMBIQUE

Contingency planning

The Mozambique disaster management authority, the Instituto Nacional Gestao de Calamidades (INGC), met with representatives of UN agencies, USAID, the British Department for International Development (DFID), NGOs and other humanitarian experts to draft a contingency plan should cyclone Hudah strike.

The weather

The South African Weather Bureau said on Friday the storm was some 200 km off the coast southeast of Quelimane: "It is predicted to move slowly in a generally south westerly direction but should remain offshore for the next 24 hours during which time the intensity of the system is expected to remain
at the 'Tropical Cyclone' category.

"Whilst winds of up to 160 kmh are present near the centre, wind speeds overland are not expected to reach gale force before Saturday 8 April," it said. The weather report said heavy rain could be expected north of the country's second city, Beira, mainly along the coastal belt. Quelimane had already reported 80 mm of rain on Friday.

Food

WFP said had already stockpiled food in the provinces most likely to be hit, Nampula and Zambezia.

Air assets

The USAID-funded AirServ, as well as the Malawian Air Force, and the South African Air Force currently have 24 helicopters and 19 fixed-wing planes at hand in Mozambique.

Boats

On 5 April, USAID/OFDA sent 12 experts from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and four boats for further relief operations. In its latest report, USAID said they would train NGO partners in search and rescue techniques.

The United States also sent four Zodiac boats to Maputo for use by NGOs. Should the new cyclone strike, the government already had 60 US boats on standby in Beira.