African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 837 Typhoon

 March 14, 1891, Port of Beira.

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

In the original history, the Port of Beira was built in 1891, and the construction of the Port of Beira in East Africa was just half a year earlier. In its previous life, the Port of Beira was one of the main entrepots for Zimbabwe, Congo (DRC), Malawi and Zambia, and the whole country of Mozambique. The second largest port, this also shows the advantages of Beira Port.

But the situation in Beira is not very good now. Strong winds are blowing throughout the area, and heavy rains are testing this fledgling city.

 Due to time constraints, many buildings in Beira are temporary structures, mostly civil structures. In this extreme weather, local buildings were greatly damaged.

“This **** weather, we have never encountered a hurricane of this magnitude in Dar es Salaam before.” Beira, the first mayor of Beira, said loudly.

Mozambique is a country that is hit by typhoons all year round. East Africa naturally did not know this before, or had little experience, because typhoons generally occur near the equator and then develop into typhoons when they move to the poles. That is, the mayor of Beira City A hurricane from Leland's mouth.

There are three main names for typhoons: tropical cyclones, hurricanes, etc. The southeastern part of the Far Eastern Empire is called a typhoon, and 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 are not very powerful, and the city of Dar es Salaam is very close to the equator, so it is generally not affected.

The case of Beira Port is different. The latitude of Beira is around 30 degrees south latitude (29 degrees), which happens to be the area where the typhoon is more powerful.

In the southeastern part of East Africa, which is most susceptible to typhoons, there is Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, to the east, which to a certain extent will block some typhoons from East Africa.

 “Huh, that’s good, it doesn’t look like the problem is too bad...”

“Many houses and work sheds have been damaged by the typhoon, and there may be casualties. Trees in the city have been cut off. In this case, except for the city government, I am afraid that most buildings are not in good condition.”

“Have the ships in the port been affected in any way now?” Beira Mayor Beliland asked.

Of course, the power of typhoons in East Africa is still much weaker than that in the Americas and the Far East. In particular, the impact on East Africa is not as great as imagined.

"Mr. Mayor, the overall condition of the port area is currently good. However, two ships collided because they entered the port too slowly, and the damage was somewhat serious. We have no way to deal with it for the time being. We will wait until the typhoon weakens before we can resolve it based on the situation. "

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his subordinate said: "Mr. Mayor, although there are no big problems at the port, I'm afraid the situation in the city is not very good."

Berleland hurriedly asked: "What's the situation now?"

However, because the Madagascar Strait is too wide, some relatively powerful typhoons will generally strengthen again on the sea surface after passing through the Madagascar Strait. This is the case with the typhoon Beira now.

Beira is on the north side of the Pengkui River mouth, and the land protrudes to the northeast, which is opposite to the direction of the typhoon. Therefore, 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 city government The government agencies can only stare blankly.

 The reason why the city government has not been affected is that the city government and other government agencies are all masonry institutions. After all, this is the tradition in East Africa. Every time a new area is opened, the construction of government agencies and infrastructure will be given priority.

“As soon as the typhoon has stopped, we will immediately organize personnel to rescue people affected by the disaster in the city, and at the same time, we will collect disaster data.” Belilan ordered. In fact, so far, the population of Beira is only more than 7,000, so the number of people affected by the disaster cannot be too large. On the contrary, the construction in the previous six months may not be able to withstand the test, which makes the construction of Beira more difficult, especially in Habe. The stall where the railway is about to be built.

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

Less than an hour later, the typhoon struck again, catching everyone by surprise. Before the personnel had been resettled, a new storm ushered in.

This caused the number of casualties in Beira City due to the typhoon to increase from four to 12. On the contrary, the old sailors in the port area had experience with typhoons, so the port area was not greatly affected.

In the dock house next to the John Dell, Captain John Dell 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. The eye of the typhoon is generally located It’s calm, but once the eye of the typhoon passes, the typhoon will continue.”

He held a bowl and demonstrated 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 when the other side of the bowl wall passes, the wind will blow out." It will really end."

"I once encountered a typhoon in Southeast Asia. That experience was much scarier than Typhoon Beira. When sailing on the sea, you will always encounter unpredictable situations. The more knowledge you have, the easier it will be to save your life... "

 Another vivid lesson. Unfortunately, it was the first time Beira City encountered this situation, and its lack of relevant experience caused unnecessary losses. This can also be regarded as a lesson to the East African government.

 After the disaster, the number of casualties and missing persons increased to 43, including three government workers responsible for rescue missions and four policemen. More than 200 houses were destroyed, and economic losses reached more than 13,000 rhine guilders.

Fortunately, the construction of Beira City did not take long and the city is not large, otherwise the losses would be greater. This is also the first time that the East African government has encountered such a powerful typhoon in recent years. Previously, only the Portuguese government could enjoy this "blessing" ".

The disaster in the city of Beira also affected the start of the Habe Railway to a certain extent. At least in terms of housing reconstruction, the city of Beira needs to work harder.

Of course, typhoons are not necessarily only bad. 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 boosting the agricultural development of Matabele Province.

 The Mozambique region does not enjoy this benefit because its development level is too low. On the contrary, the surge in rainwater has caused certain troubles in the railway line exploration work.

 In April, the Habei Railway construction work was finally able to start. As for the impact of the typhoon, it was the first time that the East African government came into view.

However, the government's attitude towards "new things" like typhoons is very stable, because compared with natural disasters like typhoons, they are not ranked high in East Africa at all.

The main natural disasters encountered by the central government of East Africa every year are droughts and floods. In a country as vast as East Africa, there is always a place where the weather is not good every day, so everyone has long been used to it.

However, there was no delay in providing assistance to the city of Beira. After all, the Habei Railway is an important national project favored by the East African government, and the construction of the Beira Port was also one of the East African government's major port construction projects in 1891. Therefore, even if the city of Beira does not Affected by the disaster, East Africa will still increase the scale of local investment.

 Beira City’s location advantage determines 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, and its progress will not be stagnant because of “small” natural disasters.

 (End of this chapter)