Ngangu and Kopa were the most ravaged when Cyclone Idai ravaged Chimanimani during the night of March 14 last year, but the tropical cyclone, the heaviest ever to hit the Southern Hemisphere, was to leave a trail of destruction across the whole district.
The Zimunda community, some 50-or-so kilometres from the epicentre was not spared, and just like the rest of the Chimanimani district, was cut off from the rest of the world. Bridges, roads, weir dams, irrigation plots were washed away.
“When we started assessing the damage Saturday morning, it was unbelievable what lay before our eyes, we had never seen such destruction,” recalled Lazarus Mauka. “Fine, we had hardly slept that Friday night, for fear of meeting death in our sleep and secondly because the downpour was so heavy – and so cold – one could hardly afford any sleep.”
