Rescue workers warned that more victims were likely as they scoured destroyed neighbourhoods for survivors even as hopes dwindled.
The fierce storm delivered its second punch to southeastern Africa starting at the weekend, its second landfall since late February after brewing off Australia and traversing the Indian Ocean.
Malawi's government said at least 190 people were killed with 584 injured and 37 missing, while authorities in neighbouring Mozambique reported 20 deaths and 24 injured.
"The situation is very dire," said Guilherme Botelho, emergency project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Malawi.
"There are many casualties, either wounded, missing or dead, and the numbers will only increase in the coming days," he said.
Many people perished in mudslides that washed away homes in the country's commercial capital, Blantyre.
Across the country, nearly 59,000 people have been affected and more than 19,000 displaced, with many now sheltering in schools and churches.
Freddy was still causing localised rains and winds in southern Malawi on Tuesday, but conditions were expected to ease from Wednesday evening, according to the country's meteorological service.
- 'We feel helpless' -
In Chilobwe, a township outside Blantyre, stunned survivors surveyed flattened houses and other structures as rain continued to fall.
John Witman, in his 80s, dressed in a raincoat and woollen hat with his 10 family members in tow, stood in front of what had been his son-in-law's home. It was now just rocks and gushing water, the house having been swept away.
"I wish that we could find him, and find closure. We feel helpless because no one is here to help us," he said.
In Chimwankhunda, a few kilometres away, Steve Panganani Matera, wearing a high-visibility green jacket, pointed to a mound of mud.
"There were plenty of houses, but they are all gone," Matera said. "There are plenty of bodies down there in the mud."
Fourteen-year-old Mayeso Chinthenga said his family's house was taken by the cascading mud.
"We were out looking for firewood when we saw rocks rolling down the mountain so we ran for safety. Some of our neighbours died on the spot," he said at a nearby school.
President Lazarus Chakwera, who returned to the country on Tuesday after attending a United Nations conference in Qatar, hailed the relief efforts by volunteers.
"We have arrived to a devastated nation," he said in a statement.
- Rare loopback -
Cyclone Freddy reached landlocked Malawi early on Monday morning after sweeping through Mozambique at the weekend.
The storm has unofficially broke the World Meteorological Organization's benchmark as the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record, set in 1994 for a 31-day storm named John.
Freddy became a named storm on February 6, making landfall in Madagascar on February 21 and sweeping over the island before reaching Mozambique on February 24, claiming nearly two dozen lives in both countries and affecting nearly 400,000 people.
It then returned to the Indian Ocean and gathered new energy over its warm waters, then reversed course to come back much more powerful at the weekend, packing wind gusts of up to 200 km/h (125 mph), according to Emmanuel Cloppet of the Meteo-France weather service.
Meteorologists say that cyclones tracking across the entire Indian Ocean are very infrequent -- the last occurred in 2000 -- and that Freddy's loopback was even more exceptional.
"It's a very rare thing that these cyclones feed themselves over and over again," said climate expert Coleen Vogel at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand.
The cyclone has piled more woes on Malawi, already grappling with the deadliest cholera outbreak in its history, which has killed over 1,600 people since last year.
Fears of a cholera resurgence after the outbreak started in the aftermath of another tropical storm last year have been exacerbated by vaccines shortages.
No beds, little food await Malawi Cyclone survivors
Kapeni, Malawi (AFP) March 14, 2023 -
Wet clothes hang from the windows of a school in Kapeni, a district of Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre, where hundreds of people have sought shelter from deadly Cyclone Freddy.
Packing powerful winds and rain, the cyclone's return triggered floods and mudslides that washed away homes and buried their inhabitants
Mayeso Chinthenga, 14, said he was out fetching for firewood when he and other boys "saw rocks rolling down the mountain" and ran for dear life.
"Some of our neighbours died on the spot", he said. He and his family escaped only with their lives.
"Our house was destroyed. We lost everything," said Chinthenga. "Some of our neighbours died on the spot".
The family-of-five came to Kapeni Demonstration School on Monday after the premises were opened to accommodate some of the at least 19,000 people that authorities say have been displaced by the storm.
"A lot of people arrived here seeking shelter, they said they were running away from the mudslide," said Florence Chiwale, a teacher at the school.
"We decided to open the classrooms for them."
- Nearly 200 dead -
Almost 200 people have died in Malawi since Freddy pummelled through southern Africa at the weekend for the second time within a few weeks.
Relief workers expect the tally to rise.
About 1,000 survivors are currently living in this makeshift evacuation centre near the hard-hit southern city of Blantyre.
Most are women and children. They sleep on concrete floors, with no mattresses.
Students' desks have been placed against classroom walls to make space for them.
"The classrooms have no lights, we are using solar lamps," said local aid worker Rose Longer.
Outside everything is damp.
Aid is trickling in, but not in large quantities. Most has been provided by well-wishers, said Longer.
"We have distributed rice and beans and drinks that have been donated."
Three women volunteered to prepare meals. They were cooking traditional cornmeal porridge in the school kitchen.
"This is the first food that I have received since I arrived," said Chinthenga, holding a bag of freeze-dried rice with beans and meat.
Government declared a "state of disaster" in the affected regions to allow it pull in emergency resources and respond to the crisis while appealing for local and international aid.
After brewing off Australia in early February, Freddy crossed the Indian Ocean and made landfall on southeastern Africa in late February, before returning at the weekend to deliver a second harder blow.
Cyclone Freddy, which reached landlocked Malawi early Monday morning after sweeping through Mozambique, last week unofficially broke the World Meteorological Organization's benchmark as the longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record.
That was set in 1994 for a 31-day storm named John and researchers will now study whether Freddy is the official new titleholder, a process likely to take months.
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