Tropical Cyclone Jude Tears Through Northern Mozambique Near Coal Hub

Tropical Cyclone Jude made landfall on Mozambique’s northeastern coast in the early hours of Monday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain near the nation’s main coal export terminal.

The storm strengthened to the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane with wind gusts as high as 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour before crossing onto land near Ilha de Moçambique, south of the Nacala port, Meteo France said. No deaths have yet been reported.

Nacala is the most important shipping terminal for Mozambique’s coal, its biggest export by value. The impact on the port isn’t yet clear. The state-owned company that operates it didn’t answer a call seeking comment and Nacala Logistics, which runs the coal rail line to the port, didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

The nation’s weather service warned of rainfall as high as 250 millimeters in 24 hours, and the European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre said it could bring flooding to the affected areas normally seen every 20-years.

River basins and dams in Nampula province, over which the storm is moving, were already full, worsening the impact of flooding on infrastructure, Guy Taylor, a spokesman for the United Nations agency for children, said from the capital, Maputo. More than 340,000 people are at very high risk, he said.

Jude is forecast to continue moving westward inland toward the border with Malawi, where the government shut schools in 13 districts in anticipation of its arrival. The storm will later change direction and head southeasterly, before crossing back over the ocean by Wednesday or Thursday, said Meteo France, which tracks such storms from its Tropical Cyclone Center at Reunion Island.

More than 436,000 people have faced power cuts in Nampula since Sunday, the state power utility said.

The cyclone is the third to strike Mozambique in the current season, after Chido in December and Dikeledi the following month.