Death toll soars in Malawi following destructive Cyclone Freddy
Cyclone Freddy’s historic journey has also proven to be deadly and destructive as the full extent of the storm’s damage in three separate countries continues to be revealed.
Malawi has declared a state of disaster after powerful Tropical Storm Freddy hit southern Africa for a second time.
The deadly and destructive journey for long-lasting Tropical Cyclone Freddy is finally over after the storm made its third and final landfall more than one month after its initial formation, AccuWeather forecasters say.
After being named on Feb. 6, Freddy took a westward track across the Indian Ocean, spinning from just northwest of Australia all the way to eastern Africa. Freddy affected Madagascar and southeastern Africa for nearly two weeks, making three total landfalls and killing more than 200 people in Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi. The storm dissipated over Mozambique early Monday, local time.
On Tuesday, the death toll in Malawi from Freddy rose to at least 190 deaths, according to the disaster management agency. The Malawi government declared a state of disaster in the southern parts of the country and school has already been canceled through at least Wednesday.
At least another 21 deaths have been attributed to the storm in Madagascar and Mozambique. The powerful winds and torrential rain from Freddy have led to significant power outages in Mozambique following its landfall this past weekend, which has hampered communications. As such, officials fear that the extent of damage and the number of fatalities in the country may rise.
More than a month's worth of rain has fallen in Mozambique during the past four weeks, according to the BBC. An estimated 1.5 million people have been affected since the storm first hit last month, according to Mozambique's National Disaster Management Agency, and more than 8,000 people are likely to be left homeless.
Before dissipating Monday, Freddy lingered in the Indian Ocean basin as a named tropical cyclone for a total of 35 days and is likely now the longest-lasting named tropical system in history. The previous record was held by Typhoon John in 1994, which survived for 31 days. The World Meteorological Organization is expected to confirm this record in the near future.
Freddy has already gone down in history as a once-in-a-lifetime storm, having broken at least one record.
Freddy took an unusual path across the Indian Ocean and along the eastern African coast during its more than a month-long journey, which included a 15-day trek westward across the open waters of the ocean, before finally making landfall in Madagascar. Freddy then went on to meander through the Mozambique Channel for another two weeks, before two landfalls in Mozambique.
The above image on AccuWeather's Hurricane Tracker shows Freddy's path across the Indian Ocean from Feb. 6 to its final landfall on March 11.
During that time, Freddy's strength fluctuated, reaching the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic or East Pacific Ocean Basins more than once. Freddy was only the 20th tropical cyclone to reach this strength in the South Indian Ocean since 1989. In fact, Freddy re-intensified a total of seven times and traveled more than 5,500 miles.
As a long-duration storm, Freddy's accumulated cyclone energy, referred to as ACE, was exceptionally high. ACE is a measure of a storm's intensity over its lifetime.
According to Colorado State University, the ACE for Freddy is 84.7 as of March 13, which is more than the average total ACE of an entire Atlantic hurricane season. This ACE value is not only the highest ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, but it's also close to the total ACE of Hurricane Ioke from 1980, the current world record-holder for a single cyclone at around 85.
The above AccuWeather RealVue Satellite shows Freddy making landfall in Madagascar on Feb. 21.
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