Port of Beira, March 14, 1891.

As we enter the new year, the Port of Beira, the number one project in Mozambique, has begun to take shape.

The original history, Beira Port was built in 1891, and the construction of Beira Port in East Africa was just half a year earlier, the former Beira Port was one of the main entrepot ports of Zimbabwe, Congo (DRC), Malawi and Zambia, and the second largest port in Mozambique, which can also see the advantages of Beira Port.

However, things are not good for Beira right now, with strong winds throughout the region and torrential rains testing the fledgling city.

Due to the time constraints, many of the buildings in Beira were temporarily erected, and most of them were civil structures, and the local buildings were greatly damaged during this extreme weather.

"Damn it, I've never seen a hurricane of this magnitude in Dar es Salaam before." The first mayor of Beira, Berliland, said loudly.

Mozambique is a perennial country hit by typhoons, something that East Africa did not know before, or had little experience, because typhoons usually occur near the equator and then develop into typhoons when they move towards the poles, which is what the mayor of Beira, Berliland, called a hurricane.

There are three main names for typhoons, tropical cyclones, hurricanes, etc., such as typhoons in the southeastern part of the Far Eastern Empire, and hurricanes in the southeastern United States.

Most of eastern East Africa is affected by typhoons, but typhoons in the Indian Ocean are not very powerful, and the city of Dar es Salaam is close to the equator, so it is generally not affected.

The port of Beira is different, and 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 in the Americas and the Far East, especially since East Africa is not as affected as imagined.

In the southeast, which is most vulnerable to typhoons, Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, is located in the east, which will keep some typhoons out of East Africa to a certain extent.

However, because the Strait of Madagascar is too vast, some of the more powerful typhoons usually strengthen again after passing through the Strait of Madagascar, and this is the case with Beira now.

"Is there any effect on the ships in the harbor now?" Berliland, the mayor of Beira, asked.

"Mr. Mayor, the overall condition of the port area is good at present, but there are two ships that collide because they are too slow to enter the port, and the damage is somewhat serious, and we have no way to deal with it for the time being, and we can only solve it according to the situation after the typhoon weakens."

"Whew, that's fine, it doesn't look like the problem is too bad......"

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his subordinate said, "Mr. Mayor, although there is no big problem with the port, I am afraid that the situation in the city is not very good. ”

Berliland hurriedly asked, "What's the situation now?" ”

"There are a lot of houses and sheds that have been damaged by the typhoon, there may be casualties, and the trees in the city have been cut off, and in this case, I am afraid that most of the buildings are not in good condition except for the city government."

Beira is on the north side of the mouth of the Pengkui River, and the land protrudes to the northeast, which is the opposite direction of the typhoon, so the port area has not been greatly affected, and the urban area has suffered, and it is impossible to send people out to organize rescue at this time, so the city government and other government agencies can only stare dryly.

In fact, the reason why the city government was not affected was that the city government and other government agencies were brick and stone institutions, after all, this is the tradition of East Africa, and every time a new area is opened, the construction of government offices and infrastructure is prioritized.

"When the typhoon stopped, we immediately organized manpower to rescue the affected people in the city, and at the same time counted the disaster data." Berliland commanded.

In fact, so far, the population of Beira is only more than 7,000 people, so the number of people affected by the disaster is not too many, but the construction in the previous six months may not be able to withstand the test, which increases the difficulty of Beira's construction, especially at the stall where the Haber Railway is about to be built.

Half an hour later, the wind and rain finally stopped, and the city government and government officials began to dispatch, but they obviously lacked the correct understanding of the typhoon.

In less than an hour, the typhoon struck again, which caught everyone off guard, and before the personnel could be settled, a new storm was ushered in.

As a result, the number of casualties in Beira City due to the typhoon increased from four to twelve, but it was the veteran sailors of Minato Ward who experienced the typhoon and did not affect Minato Ward much.

In the dock house next to the Johndel, Captain John Del 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, and the position of the eye of the typhoon is generally calm, but once the eye of the typhoon passes, the typhoon will continue." ”

He held a bowl and demonstrated to everyone: "The bowl wall is actually the real power of the typhoon, as for the center is actually empty for special reasons, but the typhoon is rotating, so the typhoon will not really end until the bowl wall on the other side passes." ”

"I have encountered typhoons in Southeast Asia, and that experience is much more terrible than Typhoon Beira, no matter how much you sail on the sea, you will always encounter unpredictable situations, and the more knowledge you know, the easier it will be to save your life......

It was another vivid teaching, but it was a pity that Beira City encountered this situation for the first time, and the lack of relevant experience caused the second unnecessary loss, which can be regarded as a lesson for the East African government.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the number of casualties and missing persons rose to 43 people, including three government workers in charge of rescue missions, four policemen, more than 200 houses were destroyed, and economic losses amounted to more than 13,000 rheupiahs.

Fortunately, the construction time of Beira is not long, and the scale of the city is not large, otherwise the loss will be greater, which is also the first time that the East African government has encountered such a powerful typhoon in recent years, and only the Portuguese government can enjoy this "blessing" before.

The disaster in Beira has also affected the start of the Habe Railway to a certain extent, and at least in terms of housing reconstruction, Beira City has to make more efforts.

Of course, typhoons don't have to be bad, as the typhoon actually penetrated deep into the interior of East Africa all the way to the Matabele Plateau, bringing abundant precipitation to Matabele province and boosting the province's agricultural development.

The Mozambican region, on the other hand, is too underdeveloped to enjoy this benefit, but because of the surge of rains, it has caused some problems for the exploration of railway lines.

In April, the construction of the Habe railway was finally able to begin, and the impact of the typhoon was also the first time that the East African government was in sight.

However, the government's attitude towards such a "new thing" as a typhoon is very stable, because compared to natural disasters such as typhoons, it is not ranked in East Africa at all.

The natural disasters encountered by the central government of East Africa every year are mainly droughts and floods, and in a country like East Africa, there is always a place every day that will not be smooth, so everyone has long been accustomed to it.

However, there was no delay in the assistance to Beira City, after all, the Haber Railway is an important national project favored by the East African government, including the construction of Beira Port, which is also one of the major port construction projects of the East African government in 1891, so even if Beira City is not affected, East Africa will still increase the scale of investment in the local area.

The location advantage of Beira City determines that the development potential of this city will not be bad, and it will also be one of the key development areas in East African port cities in the future, and will not be stagnant because of "small" natural disasters.

(End of chapter)

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