Imagine being swept away by water, which claims the lives of all your family members and spares only you. Or, in another case, imagine being ‘excavated’ from a pile of mud after raging waters sweep you off your feet and ‘attempts’ to bury you in the ground, far from helping hands and the air of life— oxygen. Stop imagining for, as DEBORAH MADEYA writes, these are the lived experiences of some Chiradzulu District residents who survived the cyclone but cannot run away from that haunting past.
A week does not pass without Grace Richard dreaming about the day she survived not by her sheer will but because she had the presence of mind to hold on to a tree.
This is despite that six months have elapsed since Tropical Cyclone Freddy made landfall in the country on March 11 this year.
The natural phenomenon took districts in the Southern Region in its grip, killing people and livestock, destroying public and household property and washing away crops in the fields.
However, while devastation was widespread in districts such as Blantyre, Mulanje, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Mangochi, Zomba and other districts, it was menacing in Mtauchira Village, Traditional Authority Likoswe, in Chiradzulu District, as it swept away an entire village.
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Most of the people it swept died; a handful made it out of the grip of death into the safety of the warm hand of life.
But one of them, Richard, still cannot let go of the memories of that day.
“I think this is because I survived by holding on to a tree when a landslide from Chambe Mountain swept everything that was on the village.
“It was on March 14, around 5 in the morning, when I realised that I was being washed away by dirty water. As I was being swept away, while struggling to swim, I happened to pass by a tree which I held on to; in so doing, I held on to life. And that is how I survived.
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“That was not the end of my ordeal, though. Most times, especially when I am alone or when sleeping, I just freak out and feel like the cyclone is coming back to haunt me,” Richard said.
“For your information, I lost all of my family members and, until now, some of them have not been found,” she added.
Just like Richard, Rose Nsewula survived by what she calls “the grace of God”.
She has her reasons for saying that.
“I was swept away by water and people had to pull me out of mud. They literally ‘excavated’ me from a pile of mud. Every time I think about what happened, I cry uncontrollably. I still do not understand how I survived. Every night, I battle nightmares. The cyclone has killed the peace in my life,” Nsewula said.
The survivors are among those that are camping at Chanza Primary School in the Southern Region district.
Now, the survivors are facing another problem; drying support.
“Soon after the disaster struck, we were helped by a number of organisations and well-wishers but, now, it looks like people and organisations have forgotten us.
“We are now relying only on the government to provide for our needs. The government cannot cater to all of us, which is why we are calling on other well-wishers to reach out to us with support,” said another survivor Austin Maloya.
He is not only a survivor but chairperson for the camp.
Apart from providing support to the people, the government has, through the Ministry of Lands, allocated the survivors land in Nkalo Village.
Lands Minister Deus Gumba said they would construct 59 houses for people from the 59 households that are living at the camp.
“We, as government, are going up and down, sourcing funds for construction of affordable houses [to be constructed] through the Malawi Housing Corporation, among others, for all those who lost property and land due to Cyclone Freddy,” he said.
Meanwhile, Richard knows for certain that either tonight or on another night, the nightmares will be back— she has no idea until when.
