Chapter 837 Typhoon
March 14, 1891, Port of Beira.
After the new year, the Port of Beira, the number one project in Mozambique, has begun to take shape.
Original history: Beira Port was built in 1891, and the construction of Beira Port in East Africa was just half a year earlier. In its previous life, Beira Port was the main entrepot for Zimbabwe, Congo (DRC), Malawi and Zambia. It is one of the ports and the second largest port in Mozambique. This also shows the advantages of the Port of Beira.
But the situation in Bella is not very good now. Strong winds are blowing throughout the area, and heavy rains are testing this fledgling city.
Due to time constraints, many buildings in Beira are temporary structures, mostly civil structures. In this extreme weather, local buildings were greatly damaged.
“This damn weather, we have never encountered a hurricane of this level in Dar es Salaam before.” Beira, the first mayor of Beira, said loudly.
Mozambique is a country that is hit by typhoons all year round. East Africa naturally did not know this before, or had little experience, because typhoons generally occur near the equator and then develop into typhoons when they move to the polar regions, that is, A hurricane from the mouth of Beira Mayor Beliland.
There are three main names for typhoons, tropical cyclones, hurricanes, etc. The southeastern part of the Far Eastern Empire is called a typhoon, and the southeastern part of the United States is called a hurricane.
Most areas in eastern East Africa will be affected by typhoons, but typhoons in the Indian Ocean are not very powerful, and the city of Dar es Salaam is very close to the equator, so it is generally not affected.
The Beira Port is different. The latitude of Beira is around 30 degrees south latitude (29 degrees), which happens to be the area where the typhoon is more powerful.
Of course, the power of typhoons in East Africa is still much weaker than that in the Americas and the Far East. In particular, the impact on East Africa is not as great as imagined.
In the southeast of East Africa, which is most susceptible to typhoons, there is the world's fourth largest island to the east - Madagascar, which to a certain extent will block some typhoons from East Africa.
However, because the Strait of Madagascar is too wide, some relatively powerful typhoons will generally strengthen again on the sea surface after passing through the Strait of Madagascar. This is the case with typhoon Beira now.
“Are the ships in the port affected now?” Beira Mayor Beliland asked.
"Mr. Mayor, the overall condition of the port area is currently good. However, two ships collided because they entered the port too slowly, and the damage was somewhat serious. We have no way to deal with it for the time being. We will wait until the typhoon weakens before we can resolve it based on the situation. "
"Huh, that's good. It doesn't look like the problem is too bad..."
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his subordinate said: "Mr. Mayor, although the port is not too It’s a big problem, but I’m afraid the situation in the city is not good.”
Bolilan quickly asked: “What’s the situation now?”
“Many houses and sheds were damaged by the typhoon, maybe. There are also casualties, and the trees in the city have been cut off. In this case, except for the city hall, I am afraid that most buildings are not in good condition.”
Beira is on the north side of the Pengkui River mouth, and the land protrudes to the northeast, which is opposite to the direction of the typhoon. Therefore, the port area was not greatly affected, but the urban area suffered. It was impossible to send people out to organize rescue at this time, so the city government The government agencies can only stare blankly.
In fact, the reason why the city government has not been affected is that the city government and other government agencies are brick and mortar institutions. After all, this is a tradition in East Africa. Every time a new area is opened, priority will be given to the construction of government agencies and infrastructure.
"The typhoon has stopped. Immediately organize manpower to rescue people in the city and collect disaster data at the same time." Belilan ordered. In fact, so far, the population of Beira is only more than 7,000, so the number of people affected by the disaster cannot be too large. On the contrary, the construction in the previous six months may not be able to withstand the test, which makes the construction of Beira more difficult, especially in Habe. The stall where the railway is about to be built.
Half an hour later, the wind and rain finally stopped, and personnel from the city government and government agencies began to dispatch, but they obviously lacked the correct understanding of the typhoon.
In less than an hour, the typhoon struck again, catching everyone by surprise. Before the personnel had been resettled, a new storm ushered in.
This caused the number of casualties in Beira City due to the typhoon to rise from four to 12. On the contrary, the old sailors in the port area had experience with typhoons, so the port area was not greatly affected.
In the dock house next to the John Dell, Captain John Dell explained to everyone: "A typhoon is actually a big circle, but the center of this circle is hollow. We call it the eye of the typhoon. The location of the eye of a typhoon is usually calm, but once the eye of a typhoon passes, the typhoon will continue."
He took a bowl and demonstrated to everyone: "The wall of the bowl is actually where the typhoon is really powerful. , as for the center is actually empty due to special reasons, but the typhoon is rotating, so the typhoon will not really end until the other side of the bowl wall passes."
"I once encountered a typhoon in Southeast Asia. , that kind of experience is much scarier than Typhoon Bella. When sailing on the sea, you will always encounter unpredictable situations. The more knowledge you know, the easier it will be to save your life..."
It was another vivid lesson. Unfortunately, it was the first time Beira encountered this kind of situation, and its lack of relevant experience caused a second unnecessary loss. This can also be regarded as a lesson to the East African government.
After the disaster, the number of casualties and missing persons rose to forty-three, including three government workers responsible for rescue missions and four policemen. More than two hundred houses were destroyed, and economic losses reached thirteen thousand More than a thousand rhine guilders.
Fortunately, Beira City has not been built for a long time and the city is not large, otherwise the losses would be greater. This is also the first time that the East African government has encountered such a powerful typhoon in recent years. Before this, only the Portuguese government Only then can we enjoy this “blessing”.
The disaster in Beira City has also affected the start of the Habe Railway to a certain extent. At least in terms of housing reconstruction, Beira City needs to work harder.
Of course, typhoons are not necessarily only bad. This typhoon actually penetrated deep into the interior of East Africa, all the way to the Matabele Plateau, bringing abundant precipitation to Matabele Province and helping Matabele. Provincial agricultural development.
However, the Mozambique region does not enjoy this kind of benefits because the level of development is too low. Instead, the surge in rain has caused certain troubles in the railway line exploration work.
In April, the Habei Railway construction work was finally able to start. As for the impact of the typhoon, it was the first time that the East African government came into view.
However, the government's attitude towards "new things" like typhoons is very stable, because compared with natural disasters like typhoons, they are not ranked high in East Africa at all.
The main natural disasters encountered by the central government of East Africa every year are droughts and floods. In a country as vast as East Africa, there is always a place where the weather is not going well every day, so everyone has long been used to it.
However, there was no delay in providing assistance to the city of Beira. After all, the Habei Railway is an important national project favored by the East African government. The construction of Beira Port was also one of the East African government's major port construction projects in 1891. Therefore, even if the city of Beira is not affected by the disaster, East Africa will still increase its investment there.
The location advantage of Beira City determines that the development potential here will not be bad. In the future, it will also be one of the key development areas among East African port cities. It will not stagnate due to "small" natural disasters.
(End of this chapter)