After Tropical Storm Freddy ripped through southern Africa for the second time in a month, more than 200 people have been confirmed dead in Malawi.
Huge amounts of brown water have swept through neighborhoods, destroying homes.
Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial hub, has recorded the majority of the deaths, including dozens of children.
Aid organizations are warning that the devastation will exacerbate Malawi’s cholera outbreak.
The government has declared a disaster in ten southern districts that have been hit the hardest by the storm.
Rescue workers are overwhelmed and are searching for survivors buried in mud with shovels.
“Rivers are overflowing, people are being carried away by raging waters, and buildings are collapsing,” police spokesman Peter Kalaya told the BBC.
Aaron Ntambo, a Blantyre resident, recalled how he assisted in the rescue of a child: “The child was buried up to her neck in mud. She was pleading for assistance. Despite the fact that the water was very deep, we were able to cross and save her. We managed to pull her out despite the difficulties.”
Officials at the city’s main referral hospital said they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of bodies arriving.
Doctors Without Borders reported that more than 40 children were pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Officials urged bereaved families to collect the bodies for burial because the hospital’s mortuary was at capacity.
More than 20,000 people have been displaced, according to the government’s disaster relief agency.
The death toll is expected to rise as some areas remain cut off due to heavy rain and strong winds.
Malawi’s power supply has also been crippled by the storm, with most of the country experiencing prolonged blackouts.
The national electricity company stated that its hydro-power plant could not be restarted because it had become clogged with debris.
The poorest communities, which are densely populated and live in brick and mud houses, have been the hardest hit.
Some of these houses have crumbled into flood waters, while others have been entirely swept away.
Rescue operations had been hampered by the collapse of roads and bridges, and helicopters could not be used due to heavy rains and strong winds.
The government has asked for assistance for the tens of thousands of people who are without food and shelter.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, Freddy is the strongest tropical cyclone on record and may also be the longest-lasting.
After battering the island nation of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, the storm struck Mozambique as a cyclone for the second time in less than a month on Sunday.
Because power and phone signals were cut off in some areas of the affected areas, determining the extent of the damage and the number of deaths in Mozambique has been difficult.
So far, approximately 20 deaths have been reported.
Climate change, according to experts, is making tropical storms around the world wetter, windier, and more intense.
Freddy had broken records for the amount of strength it had accumulated during its 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) journey across the Indian Ocean from northwestern Australia.