The death toll from a cyclone that smashed into Mozambique and Zimbabwe rose to more than 300 on Tuesday as rescuers raced against the clock to help survivors and the UN led the charge to provide aid.

"We already have more than 200 dead, and nearly 350,000 people are at risk," Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced, while the government in Zimbabwe said around 100 people had died but the toll could be triple that figure.

The UN, meanwhile, said that one of the worst storms to hit southern Africa in decades had also unleashed a humanitarian crisis in Malawi, affecting nearly a million people and forcing more than 80,000 from their homes.

Four days after Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall, emergency teams in central Mozambique fanned out in boats and helicopters, seeking to pluck survivors from roofs and treetops in an inland sea of floodwater, sometimes in the dead of night.

Air force personnel from Mozambique and South Africa were drafted in to fly rescue missions, while an NGO called Rescue South Africa said it had picked up 34 people since Friday night, using three helicopters.

"It is the only way to access the people that are stranded," Rescue SA's Abrie Senekal told AFP, saying the NGO was trying to hire more helicopters.

- 'Like a tsunami' -

Ian Scher, who heads Rescue SA, said the helicopter teams were having to make difficult decisions.

"Sometimes we can only save two out of five, sometimes we drop food and go to someone else who's in bigger danger," he said.

"We just save what we can save and the others will perish."

In Nhamatanda, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of Beira, 27-year-old Jose Batio and his wife and children survived by climbing onto a roof.

But a lot of their neighbours "were swept by the water," he said.

"Water came like a tsunami and destroyed most things. We were prisoners on the roof," he told AFP after they were rescued by boat.

The city of Beira, Mozambique's second largest city and a major port, was immediately cut off after the storm. According to the Red Cross, the cyclone damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the city of half a million people.

President Nyusi, speaking on Tuesday after attending a cabinet meeting in the ravaged city, said the confirmed death toll stood at 202 and nearly 350,000 were "at risk."

The government declared a national emergency and ordered three days of national mourning, he said.

"We are in an extremely difficult situation," Nyusi said, warning of high tides and waves of around eight metres (26 feet) in the coming days.

On Monday, Nyusi had said he feared more than 1,000 had died and more than 100,000 people were in danger.

- Zimbabwe toll -

The storm also lashed eastern Zimbabwe, leaving around 100 dead, a toll that could be as much as 300, local government minister July Moyo said after a cabinet briefing.

"I understand there are bodies which are floating, some have floated all the way to Mozambique," he said.

"The total number, we were told they could be 100, some are saying there could be 300. But we cannot confirm this situation," he said.

At least 217 others are missing and 44 stranded, officials said.

Worst hit was Chimanimani in Manicaland, an eastern province which borders Mozambique.

Families started burying their dead in damp graves on Monday, as injured survivors filled up the hospitals, an AFP correspondent said.

Military helicopters were airlifting people to Mutare, the largest city near Chimanimani.

The storm swept away homes and bridges, devastating huge areas in what Defence Minister Perrance Shiri said "resembles the aftermath of a full-scale war".

Some roads were swallowed by massive sinkholes, while bridges were ripped to pieces by flash floods.

- Aid ramps up -

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was mobilising aid for some 600,000 people, saying the world did not yet appreciate the scale of the "massive disaster."

So far, it has dispatched more than five tonnes of emergency provisions to the affected areas.

"WFP aims to support 500,000 to 600,000 people in the coming weeks," spokesman Herve Verhoosel told reporters in Geneva.

"I don't think that the world (has) realised yet the scale of the problem," he said.

In Malawi, 920,000 people have been affected by the cyclone and 82,000 people have been displaced, the UN said.

"OCHA (the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has deployed resources to support assessments and information management, and UNICEF is deploying additional supplies to affected areas including tents, water and sanitation supplies and learning materials to affected children," it said.

Southern Africa's deadliest storms in 20 years
Paris (AFP) March 19, 2019 - Here is a recap of some of the worst storms to have hit southern Africa in the past 20 years:

- Mozambique: Deadly millennium -

In February and March 2000, Mozambique's worst floods in half a century leave about 800 people dead, at least 50,000 homeless and two million more affected in a population of 17 million.

Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane provinces are the worst hit. The devastation is compounded by the passage of Cyclone Eline, which also kills 130 people in Madagascar.

In January-February 2013m the southern province of Gaza is again struck by flooding, with more than 100 people killed and 250,000 affected. Roads, hospitals and houses are washed away.

In January 2015, the Licungo river which bisects Mozambique surges by 12 metres (39 feet), killing 160 and leaving 177,000 homeless. In neighbouring Malawi, 28 districts are submerged, claiming 176 lives and leaving 153 missing.

- Madagascar: 240 die in 2004 -

In March 2004 Cyclone Gafilo slams into Madagascar, devastating its north and west, and claiming around 240 lives with 180 people reported missing.

Around 300,000 people are hurt and 305,000 left without shelter.

The island country has a long history of powerful cyclones and tropical storms.

They include Cyclone Geralda in February 1994, which claimed at least 200 lives and affected 500,000 people, and Gretelle in January 1997, which left 152 dead and 60,000 homeless.

- Zimbabwe: 2016-2017 floods -

After a severe drought, massive flooding in Zimbabwe between December 2016 and February 2017 claims 246 lives.

More than 2,000 people are left homeless and 70 dams destroyed. A subsequent outbreak of malaria kills 150 people over two months.

- Africa's worst: 6,000 dead -

From October 1997 to January 1998 more than 6,000 are killed in flooding caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which pounds Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

The three-month disaster starts in Somalia, where 1,800 die and 230,000 are left homeless when the Juba river bursts its banks.

Thousands of cattle are killed in the region, with harvests ruined and infrastructure destroyed, leading to a cholera outbreak and famine.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

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More than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique storm
Beira, Mozambique (AFP) March 19, 2019
More than a thousand people are feared to have died in a cyclone that smashed into Mozambique last week, while scores were killed and more than 200 are missing in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The city of Beira in central Mozambique bore Cyclone Idai's full wrath on Thursday before the storm barrelled on to neighbouring Zimbabwe, unleashing fierce winds and flash floods and washing away roads and houses. "For the moment we have registered 84 deaths officially, but when we flew over the area... this mor ... read more