Tropical Cyclone Kenneth Destroys Hundreds of Homes, Kills at Least 4 in Mozambique, Comoros

Tropical Cyclone Kenneth destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least one person in Mozambique.

The Category 4-equivalent storm brought flooding and landslides to the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros.

Local authorities reported at least three deaths in Cormoros.

Relief is beginning to trickle into the poverty-stricken southern African nation.

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The powerful storm made landfall early Thursday at the northern end of Mozambique's Quirimbas National Park, north of the city of Pemba, home to some 200,000 people. The area where it made landfall in a "sparsely populated apart from a number of villages with no experience of a stormof this magnitude," noted Wunderground meteorologist Bob Henson.

During the storm, a falling tree killed a woman in Pemba, while a "high number" of houses in the Macomia district of Cabo Delgado province were destroyed, the Associated Press reported. This brings the death toll from the tropical cyclone to four. Three others were killed on the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros on Wednesday, local authorities said.

Antonio Beleza, spokesman for Mozambique's emergency situation institute (INGC), said 90 percent of homes were "flattened" on the tourist island of Ibo, located north of Pemba in Quirimbas National Park and home to about 6,000 people, Agence France-Press reported.

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INGC said Wednesday nearly 700,000 people could be affected by the storm.

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Before striking Mozambique, the tropical cyclone swiped the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros, known locally as Comores, where violent winds caused landslides, flash flooding and cut off roads, Agence France-Presse reported.

Local authorities reported at least three deaths in Comoros as the storms swiped the archipelago, the New York Times reported.

More than 1,000 homes were destroyed, the AP reported.