Cyclone Idai feared to have killed more than 1000 in Mozambique

Cyclone Idai first hit Beira,Mozambique  last week and then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi.  

President Filipe Nyusi said at least 1,000 people could have been killed by Cyclone Idai which made landfall near the port city of Beira on Thursday March 14,2019 with winds of up to 177 km/h (106 mph).

Damage at the airport in Beira,Mozambique in the aftermath of the cyclone has caused the transport hub to close and cut the city off from the rest of the country 

Flights at Maputo International Airport in Mozambique's capital are shown as cancelled in the wake of the natural disaster

Beira has been severely battered by the cyclone which cut off electricity, forced the airport to shut down and cut off road access to the rest of the country. 

The Red Cross said that 90 percent of Beira, a city of 500,000, had been damaged or destroyed.  

Describing the cyclone's impact as 'massive and horrifying' they said the scale of devastation was 'enormous'.  

An aerial view from a helicopter shows the scale of flooding in the port city of Beira. 

More than 215 people have been killed by the storm according to official figures in the three countries, hundreds more are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected, according to the Red Cross and government officials.