This report will show you how evil Cyclone Idai actually is right now. At the moment. The link below is how you can help…
https://www.gofundme.com/5000-meals-for-my-birthday is where you could spread the word and help with (the link sounds odd, but in her rush to get it live, and struggling with intermittent connection during the rain, the lady in charge used this link to get it live)
The international and national press have got it wrong. This is the real truth from the ground…an entry taken directly from our Community WhatsApp group…in Vilankulos. Last night.
Good evening community. I’ve just had a call from the team leader in Beira and he says that the situation is critical. 5 days on and there are still 100’s of people on rooftops and in trees waiting to be rescued. The immediate need is for helicopters… As many as possible. Refuelling is not a problem.. He has arranged with Beira airport for fuel. Medical /foos etc is secondary.. Right now.. People need to be rescued first. He says there are lots of snakes in the trees as well. There is a man in a remote area about 50km away from Beira stranded with 100 children.. They’ve tun out of food and 3 children have died from malaria. Please, please, please…can everyone call on any and all contacts with helicopters.. If there is a fee we will get the funding… But we need helicopters!!
and then in reply…
is there any way to find out if the man with the kids is Adelino – founder/manager of the Mango Tree Kids orphanage? they are in the Mafambisse area 50ks inland fm Beira.
Nobody replied to the very sad question. That is how bad things are…
https://www.gofundme.com/5000-meals-for-my-birthday is where you could spread the word and help with (the link sounds odd, but in her rush to get it live, and struggling with intermittent connection during the rain, the lady in charge used this link to get it live)
These photos I took directly from our Community WhatsApp group in Vilankulos…this very gloomy Wednesday morning.
In the meantime, since the main access road to Beira City is gone for 500 metres or more, a ship has left from Maputo loaded with emergency reserves. An aeroplane from Dubai landed on the Beira airport runway and offloaded too. Many efforts are being made. Independent groups. Official groups. The South African military. But they are not going fast enough, hampered at every turn by the logistical nightmare of no access, no power, no communication.
Many South African emergency personnel and reservists are having their own survival skills tested to the max. Aswell as people still stuck, this very moment, in trees and on remaining rooves (99% are gone), so are snakes and other animals trying to survive anyway possible. Even big animals like crocodiles and hippos are swept from their homes and into the mellee along with stricken humans.
These independent groups, like the Gift of the Givers, and the community in Vilankulos, and surrounding unaffected communities, are pulling out all the stops and need help from anyone that can help.
This Cyclone Idai tragedy has claimed 1000’s of lives. NOT the 66 and 100 or 200 reported by the news people. This will continue for months. Not weeks. Tens of thousands of people are displaced. More. ENTIRE villages have disappeared along with the people that lived there. Whole communities. GONE.
So, one more time…that link, with details on how to help…
https://www.gofundme.com/5000-meals-for-my-birthday is where you could spread the word and help with (the link sounds odd, but in her rush to get it live, and struggling with intermittent connection during the rain, the lady in charge used this link to get it live)
Another initiative helping with the aftermath of Cyclone Idai…they sent a ship full up already it’s on it’s way.
People told of cowering in their houses, roof gone, pitch darkness with 230 kmh winds, clutching mattresses and blankets in the pouring blinding rain and darkness to protect from the shards of glass and roof tiles, air conditioners, wheelbarrows, animals flying through the black night.
It started at 4pm, and lasted a full 12 hours. Then the eye hovered above. And the wind came back, wreaking even more devastation as the wind came from the opposite direction this time.
Morning broke to tears and wails.
Things are so bad for water and food right now, that people are turning on each other. Inflation is in the high hundreds.
LAM airlines put their prices way up. Ethiopian Mozambique Airlines reduced theirs dramatically. And offered a Vilankulos to Beira flight if the numbers got up enough.
All this is happening now. It’s not what the other news says.
