Over 700 killed in Africa cyclone, more flood warning issued

Africa : Over 700 deaths have been reported in an African cyclone around the Southern Africa that had left people stranded on the rooftop and trees due to flood in the region.

Cyclone Idai lashed the Mozambican port city of Beira with winds of up to 170 km per hour (105 miles per hour) last week, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, swamping populations and devastating homes.

"The situation is getting better, still critical, but it's getting better," Land and Environment Minister Celso Correia told reporters at the airport in Beira that has become a centre for aid operations.

In all three countries, survivors have been digging through rubble to search for victims, and scrambling for shelter, food and water, while governments and aid agencies rush in help.

The United Nations' humanitarian office warned that more flooding may come as heavy rains inland poured into the low-lying Beira area and nearby dams filled up threatening to burst the Buzi and Pungwe rivers again.

"We're going to have to wait until the flood waters recede until we know the full expanse of the toll on the people of Mozambique," said UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinator Sebastian Rhodes Stampa.