THE CHIKWAWA AIR RESPONCE

INTRODUCTION

The old man stopped beside the road and looked toward the darkening sky.

He was a traditional healer, known in the villages along the Lower Shire Valley. For generations, his family had watched the seasons come and go, reading the clouds, the rivers, the wind and the behaviors of the animals.

Now he looked toward the mountains.

“The rains are coming,” he said quietly.

Then he paused.

“They are coming with anger.”

Nobody laughed.

It was February, and across southern Malawi the ground was already saturated. The rains had continued for days, pounding roofs, filling streams and turning dirt roads into rivers of brown water.

Then the Shire began to rise.

At first, the villagers moved livestock and carried their belongings to higher ground. Then the bridges began to disappear.

Roads were washed away.

Houses collapsed.

Entire communities became islands.

And in the district of Chikwawa, the disaster took on a new dimension.