Chapter 837 Typhoon
March 14, 1891, Port of Beira.
After the new year, the Port of Beira, Mozambique's top project, has begun to take shape.
According to history, the Port of Beira was founded in 1891, and the construction of the Port of Beira in East Africa started exactly half a year earlier. In its past, the Port of Beira was one of the main transshipment ports for Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and Zambia, 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 across the entire area, and heavy rains are testing this newborn city.
Due to time constraints, many buildings in Beira were temporary structures and most of them were civil structures. Under this extreme weather, local buildings suffered great damage.
"This is damn weather! Dar es Salaam has never experienced a hurricane of this magnitude before," said loudly the first mayor of Beira, Bolilan.
Mozambique is a country that is frequently hit by typhoons. This is something that East Africa naturally did not know before, or had little experience with, because typhoons generally occur near the equator, and then develop into typhoons when they move toward the polar regions, which is what Beira Mayor Bolilan calls hurricanes.
There are three main names for typhoons, tropical cyclones, hurricanes, etc. For example, the southeastern part of the Far East Empire is called a typhoon, while 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 region are not very powerful, and Dar es Salaam is very close to the equator, so it is generally not affected.
But the situation is different for the Port of Beira, as its latitude is around 30 degrees south (29 degrees), which happens to be an area where typhoons are more powerful.
Of course, the power of typhoons in East Africa is much weaker than those in America and the Far East, especially the impact on East Africa is not as great as imagined.
In the southeastern part of East Africa, which is most vulnerable to typhoons, there is the world's fourth largest island, Madagascar, to the east, which will to a certain extent block some typhoons outside East Africa.
However, because the Madagascar Strait is too wide, some stronger typhoons will generally strengthen again on the sea surface after passing through the Madagascar Strait. This is the situation that Bella is facing now.
"Is there any impact on the ships in the port now?" asked Bella Mayor Bolilan.
"Mr. Mayor, the overall condition of the port is good. However, two ships collided because they entered the port too slowly. They were seriously damaged. We have no way to deal with it for the time being. We can only deal with it after the typhoon weakens."
"Phew, that's good, it looks like the problem isn't too bad..."
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his subordinate said, "Mr. Mayor, although there are no major problems at the port, the situation in the city may not be very good."
Bolilan asked hurriedly: "What's the situation now?"
"Many houses and sheds were damaged by the typhoon, and there may be casualties. Trees in the city were cut off. Under such circumstances, I am afraid that most buildings, except for the city government, are not in good condition."
Bella is on the north side of the Pongkui River estuary, with the land protruding to the northeast, in the opposite direction of the typhoon, so 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 municipal government and other government agencies could only watch helplessly.
In fact, the reason why the city government was not affected is that the city government and other government agencies are brick and stone institutions. After all, this is a tradition in East Africa. Whenever a new area is opened up, government agencies and infrastructure will be built first.
"Once the typhoon has stopped, immediately organize personnel to rescue the victims in the city and at the same time compile statistics on the disaster," Bolilan ordered.
In fact, up to now, the population of Beira is only more than 7,000 people, so the number of people affected by the disaster is unlikely to be too large. On the contrary, the construction in the previous six months may not stand the test, which increases the difficulty of Beira's construction, especially at the stage when the Harbin-Beila Railway is about to be built.
Half an hour later, the wind finally stopped and the rain died down, and city government and government agency personnel began to move out, but they clearly lacked a correct understanding of the typhoon.
In less than an hour, the typhoon hit again, catching everyone off guard. Before everyone had been relocated, a new storm hit.
This caused the number of casualties in Beira due to the typhoon to increase from four to twelve. However, the old sailors in the port area had some experience with typhoons, so the port area was not greatly affected.
In the dock house next to the Johndel, Captain Johndel explained to everyone: "A typhoon is actually a big circle, but the center of the circle is hollow. We call it the eye of the typhoon. The eye of the typhoon is usually calm, but once the eye of the typhoon passes, the typhoon will continue."
He held a bowl to demonstrate to everyone: "The wall of the bowl is actually where the typhoon is really powerful. As for the center, it is actually empty due to special reasons. But the typhoon is rotating, so the typhoon will really end after the other side of the bowl passes."
"I once encountered a typhoon in Southeast Asia. That experience was much more terrible than Bella's typhoon. When sailing on the sea, you will always encounter unpredictable situations. The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to save your life..."
This was another vivid teaching example. Unfortunately, this was the first time that Beira City encountered such a situation and the lack of relevant experience led to secondary unnecessary losses. This can also be regarded as a lesson for the East African government.
After the disaster, the number of casualties and missing persons rose to 43, including three government workers in charge of rescue missions and four policemen. More than 200 houses were destroyed and the economic losses reached more than 13,000 Rhine guilders.
Fortunately, Beira was not built long ago and is not a large city, otherwise the losses would be even greater. This is the first time in recent years that the East African government has encountered such a powerful typhoon. Before this, only the Portuguese government could enjoy this "blessing."
The disaster in Beira has also affected the construction of the Harbin-Beira Railway to a certain extent. At least in terms of house reconstruction, Beira needs to put more effort into it.
Of course, typhoons do not always have bad effects. This typhoon actually penetrated deep into the interior of East Africa, all the way to the Matabele Plateau, bringing abundant rainfall to Matabele Province and helping the agricultural development of Matabele Province.
However, due to its low level of development, the Mozambique region cannot enjoy this benefit. Instead, the sudden rain has caused certain troubles for the railway exploration work.
In April, the construction of the Harbin-Beihe Railway could finally begin. As for the impact of the typhoon, it was also the first time that the East African government paid attention to it.
However, the government's attitude towards the "new thing" of typhoons is very stable, because compared with natural disasters such as typhoons, they are not even ranked in the list in East Africa.
The natural disasters that the East African central government encounters every year are mainly droughts and floods. In a vast country like East Africa, there is always a place where the weather is not good every day, so everyone has long been accustomed to it.
However, the aid to Beira was not delayed. After all, the Harbin-Beila Railway was an important national project favored by the East African government, and the construction of the Port of Beira was one of the main port construction projects of the East African government in 1891. Therefore, even if the city of Beira was not affected by the disaster, East Africa would still increase its investment in the local area.
The locational advantages of Beira City determine that its development potential is not bad. It will also be one of the key development areas among East African port cities in the future. It will not stagnate because of "minor" natural disasters.
(End of this chapter)
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