Hurricane Freddy...causes destruction and deaths in Madagascar and hits Mozambique, bringing exceptional rains

Weather of Arabia - Tropical cyclone "Freddy", which has been sweeping the Indian Ocean for several days, killed 7 people as it passed through Madagascar, but it weakened with its arrival on the coast of Mozambique on Friday as a tropical storm, throwing "dangerous and exceptional levels of rain" as the system continued The weather is causing havoc in South Africa.

(Scenes of the devastation left by Hurricane Freddy in Madagascar before heading to Mozambique)

Hurricane "Freddy" is one of the longest-lived weather systems in the southern hemisphere, and it reached the coast of Madagascar on Tuesday evening, with winds of about 180 kilometers per hour and heavy rains, causing severe damage in Madagascar, and the Disaster Management Office said that among the seven dead were four. They drowned and three others were killed "as a result of a house collapse, and the hurricane displaced more than 16,000 people.

Freddy's power decreased slightly after he invaded Madagascar on Tuesday night, before regaining his strength over the ocean on Wednesday evening and Thursday.

Freddie made landfall in the coastal town of Vilanculos in Mozambique on Friday, with winds of up to 113 kilometers per hour, and is now classified as a "strong tropical storm" after it picked up speed over the Mozambique Channel.

The weather system is expected to weaken as it passes through southern Africa, but still poses a significant risk of heavy rain for neighboring countries Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, according to the Reunion Regional Weather Center.

"There is a potential risk that the heavy rains that usually fall for months could fall within a few days, causing widespread flooding in an area already suffering from waterlogged soils and a rise in water levels," the United Nations meteorological agency warned in a statement. water in river basins, as a result of the unusually heavy monsoon rains.”

Every year during the cyclone season, which runs from November to April, about 10 storms or cyclones pass through the southwestern Indian Ocean, which runs from November to April.