The Powerful Cyclone Freddy Kills Over 200 in Malawi, Mozambique

VIVA – Mozambique and Malawi hit by the powerful Tropical Cyclone Freddy on Saturday night, which killed at least 216 people, and injured many others. This death toll is still expected to rise. The cyclone also caused destruction when it hit southern Africa for the second time in a month over the weekend.

President Lazarus Chakwera declared a "state of disaster" in the country's southern region and the now-ravaged commercial capital, Blantyre. Some 19,000 people in the south of the nation have been displaced, according to Malawi's disaster management directorate.

"Power and communications are down in many affected areas, hindering aid operations," said Stephane Dujarric, the UN Secretary General's spokesperson at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

The most affected regions remain inaccessible so the full extent of the damage is so far unknown.

Reports from Mozambique's disaster institute on Tuesday confirmed 1,900 homes have been destroyed in the coastal Zambezia province. Tens of thousands of people are still holed up in storm shelters and accommodation centers.

Freddy will continue to thump central Mozambique and southern Malawi with extreme rainfall before it exits back to the sea late Wednesday afternoon, the U.N.'s meteorological center on the island of Réunion projected.

The total death toll from Hurricane Freddy in Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar since it first hit last month has risen to around 136 today.

Moreover, the central hospital in Blantyre had received at least 60 bodies by the afternoon, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Country Director Marion Péchayre.

The police spokesperson, Peter Kalaya said that rescue teams have been searching for people in Chilobwe and Ndirande, the two worst-hit towns in Blantyre, "Some of the missing people are feared to be buried under rubble,"