JOHANNESBURG: Tropical cyclone Eloise made landfall in Mozambique early on Saturday, hitting the coastal city of Beira with huge gusts of wind and heavy rains, but was losing strength as it progressed, a South African weather official said.
“Eloise made landfall around 2:30 a.m. in the morning with wind speeds of 160 kilometres per hour (kph)(99 miles per hour),” Mbazhi Maliage, forecaster at South African Weather Service said.
She said the cyclone had been downgraded to a moderate tropical storm with wind speeds of between 90-100 kph and was expected to weaken further as it enters northern parts of South Africa.
There were reports of flooding and wind-related damage in some parts of Mozambique but the weather department will get an official report of the damage later in the day, Maliage said.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) late Friday had upgraded the storm, fuelled by the warm Indian Ocean waters of the Mozambique channel, to a tropical cyclone with strength…