AID workers struggled against fresh chaos across southern Africa and governments appealed for urgent international aid as floods cut the main road between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Torrential rain in the past few weeks has caused devastating floods across southern Africa, killing more than 200 people and destroying the homes of about half a million. Water-borne diseases now threaten hundreds of thousands.
"We expect a big wave of water to hit the Gaza province [in Mozambique] tomorrow," Mr Nicholas Lamade, a co-ordinator with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said. The WFP warned that cases of malaria and diarrhoea had increased sharply and that prices of staple foods were escalating in urban centres as people who had lost their homes in the countryside crowded into towns and cities.
"Prices of staple foods in southern Mozambique have skyrocketed because trucks cannot get to the towns," said a WFP spokeswoman, Ms Michele Quintaglie.
Rivers in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe burst their banks as Cyclone Eline swept west from Mozambique, bringing new rains to lands already waterlogged by two weeks of storms.
Mr Lamade said WFP's five South African helicopters and three light planes were grounded for service in anticipation of more problems over the weekend when the rising Limpopo River is expected to burst its banks in the Gaza region.
"Economically, this is a very big setback and we will have to work hard to compensate for the loss in the years to come. It is a big loss to the economy," the Mozambican President, Mr Joaquim Chissano, said.
Mozambique, one of Africa's poorest countries, was on its way to recovery from a ruinous 16-year civil war which ended in 1992, but Mr Chissano said those gains were now being eroded by the worst floods in 50 years.
President Chissano has appealed for over $60 million in international aid and the United Nations issued a worldwide appeal for a further $13 million to help more than 800,000 people affected by the floods and Cyclone Eline.
The EU is giving $1 million and former colonial power Portugal has pledged $2 million.
In South Africa, state radio reported that road traffic to and from Zimbabwe came to a standstill when the main bridge between the two countries was flooded.
It said Beit Bridge, Africa's busiest border post on the main artery between South Africa and central Africa, was under water after the Limpopo River burst its banks on Thursday night.
"The situation is desperate. There are queues of trucks, cars and buses stretching, on the Zimbabwe side, at least a kilometre," a Zimbabwe Information Service reporter said.
Zimbabwe is South Africa's biggest trading partner, with Pretoria's exports to Harare running at over $800 million a year.
Zimbabwe has appealed for international help and declared three provinces disaster zones.
Floods there have swept away roads, bridges, dams and power lines and left an estimated 250,000 people homeless.
Botswana, where rains have already washed away 10,000 homes, issued a new cyclone alert yesterday and the government appealed for urgent help to deal with the crisis. Some 34,000 people urgently need food and shelter and the government estimates damage to infrastructure at $8.5 million.