flooding in mozambique

This message is from Noberto Sango, a Mozambican who works with Iris Ministries. This is his report on the current flooding. There is very little media attention about what is going on there...today.



"I left Monday with Joe, we flew to Morrumbala. We tookoff from there to fly over the Zambezi river. As wewere flying about 200-300 feet high, I was so shockedbecause I had never seen so much water in the Zambezi.It is true that there was more water this year than in2000 or 2001 or the flood we had last year. I've neverseen so much devastation from a flood - I would sayhundreds and hundreds of houses under the water. Wefollowed the Zambezi from Morrumbala toward Caia. Wesaw so many people that were still being trapped bythe water. I believe the government still did not seemany of those people because you could only see themfrom the sky or a boat. I believe it would be really easy to rescuepeople with a boat because there are many places youcannot drive to. And also looking down, I found a lotof people have lost 1000's of acres of farms and Ibelieve so many of our churches near the Zambezi werewashed away.Basically every house is underwater and there wasnothing we could do. I was just really praying andthinking that I wish we just had a helicopter becausethere was so many people just waving and needingrescue but we could not pick them up because we werein an airplane. We did fly a little bit in Beira andwe found that even in Beira a lot of places have beenflooded. Then we flew into Tete where there had neverbeen any flooding. We flew at 4500 feet and lookedover Tete - the flooding was really bad and the waterhad taken over many places in Tete. The Zambezi hadcut lines through the city, wiping out everything inthe low places and leaving many people stranded onislands. A lot of people were waving and asking if wecould help them, but there was nothing we could do.I went with one of the teams to take the food to thecamps. It's not fair to see people living in thosekind of conditions because a lot of people don't haveany medical supplies or food. We took trucks with 200bags of rice and 18 bags of beans to the camp. Youcan see that the people had been waiting a long timeand were only living on black fish they got out of theriver. A lot of people don't have any tents and weremaking houses out of grass that they had cut. Thehouses were about 10 feet by 10 feet and some of thefamilies had 6 people in that small house. The landwasn't very clean like the land we saw last time -basically that people are tearing everything withtheir bare hands because they don't have machetes orhoes to clear the land. There was a lot of joy when wehanded out the food to the people, but there were somany people at the camps we passed that looked so sadbecause we had no food for them. It is true thatthere is so much more help that is needed and manypeople that need food and need to be rescued.On Wednesday evening, I went to speak to a man who wasa victim and ask him a couple questions. I asked himhow bad the floods were, and he told me that they hadnever seen so much water before and he had never seenso many of the farms wiped away. Everything had beenwashed away by the current including their pots andpans. As we were talking, he told me that the daybefore the team got there, there were 6 people in twocanoes trying to cross the river. The current caughtthe canoes and flipped them. There were 4 men and 1woman with a baby in a capulana. The woman managed tohang onto a stalk of sugar but when she looked behindher the baby had slipped out of the capulana. Thewoman was the only survivor, and the man took me tothe place where it happened. I was sitting with thisguy and he told me so many people were trapped by thewater.On the 6th, while one man was trying to catch fish tofeed his family, a crocodile came up and ripped offthe flesh off the man's left arm and thigh. There wasa man that came alongside and started beating thecrocodile until it left the first man alone. I couldnot take pictures because I did not think thegovernment would want me to. The man got taken toKilimani hospital, but already the man had lost somuch blood that he was not coherent. There are somany crocodiles and many people have been attacked oreaten by the crocodiles. There are many people thathave tried to cross the floodwaters and so many ofthem have been attacked by crocodiles. It's reallyhorrible.For a lot of people it's hard because their houses arein the water and they cannot stay on their roofsbecause they don't have the nice metal roofs. Ibelieve disease is going to be a real problem becausemany people are just standing in a couple inches ofwater. Malaria is going to be really bad and so isfoot swelling because everyone is just standing inwater all day. A lot of people really need clothesand plastic bags on the roofs. The kids need clothes,blankets, and plastic bags and they really need teamsof people to play with the people and tell them Jesusloves them and that someone cares about them. Ibelieve this is an opportunity for the worldwidechurch to come and show God's love to these people.There must be people that are willing to go and playwith the kids - a lot of the schools are under waterand the kids can not go to school. Instead of justfeeding people, I believe there is something else theHoly Spirit wants us to do - if we can buy rice seedand bean seed and corn meal along with hoes, thepeople will have a harvest in a couple months. Thiswill help the people a lot because most of the peoplelive through agriculture anyway. We feel like thiswill be a tool to help us invest in the people andgive them something a lot more lasting than a littlerice.From what I've seen, this is a really huge disaster.I don't know how long Mozambique is going to take torecover from this. So many schools are underwater andmany bridges were destroyed. The people need food,they need help, they need Jesus - they just need a lotof help. We have a team in Morrumbala buying andhanding out food, but we need so many more people.But this isn't the worst of it - I heard that Zimbabwe(or Zambia) has 5 dams that they are going to open upsoon. It's not Zimbabwe's fault - they really have nochoice or their country will be flooded too. When thishappens, the damage will be unbelievable...Pass on the message for people to pray about how theycan help us. Whether they send money, food, or comethemselves to help, we need all we can get."Send my love to all,
Norberto Sango