She struggled home with food, her small daughter and the proof she was still alive.
Veronica Fatia huddled on a wooden boat that left the cyclone-shattered city of Beira for what was now the unknown: the flooded town of Buzi, which for a week people had been fleeing with little but their clothes.
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She struggled home with food, her small daughter and the proof she was still alive.
After the three-hour boat journey, carrying bags of rice and her 2-year-old daughter, Fatia stepped carefully out of the vessel and walked into the remains of Buzi, looking for her mother, hoping she was still alive.
"Mama!" She was there. They embraced on a concrete walkway now littered with cooking fires and tiny children, one nodding off beside a pile of still-warm ashes.
But the fate of her other daughter, in Quelimane, remains unknown.
Cut off from the world, people can easily panic. One member of the Mozambican Red Cross, Assane Paul, tried to calm a knot of people who had heard a rumor that another cyclone was on its way.
Many people were still on the move. Dozens waited at Buzi's small pier where the fishermen's boats pull up, bags of belongings at their feet and concern on their faces. Or they simply watch for news.
Christina Machado came with her two children and a bandage on her ankle. It was cut by a tin roof during the cyclone, she said. It was treated just yesterday.
Barefoot, shivering and in tattered shorts, he added another plea to the growing chorus: "I don't know what to do now."
Relatives and friends watch as the boat arrives from Buzi disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A man holding his child watches a boat carrying displaced familie arrive after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Two men rescue an animal using a boat in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
An elderly woman is assisted disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A man docks a boat carrying displaced families after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Children wait as their parents disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A young boy makes fire as he plays in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A fisherman navigates a wooden boat to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Children stand in-front of a business building in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Displaced families set up their bedding on top of the roof in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Passengers of a wooden boat travel to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Displaced families rest inside a damaged classroom in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Relatives and friends watch as a boat arrives with people rescued from flooded areas to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A young boy sits outside their flooded house in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
The fishermen's boats ferry the displaced daily to Beira, sometimes scores at once. But Fatia was going against the tide, up waters that recently carried corpses to the sea. More than a week after Cyclone Idai roared in, the muddy flood waters were still pouring off the river banks, draining what aid workers had called an inland ocean.
Displaced families arrive after being rescued by boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
After the three-hour boat journey, carrying bags of rice and her 2-year-old daughter, Fatia stepped carefully out of the vessel and walked into the remains of Buzi, looking for her mother, hoping she was still alive.
She passed the Jesus Saves Bank now by a nearby three-story building where on the rooftop residents clustered in search of signal for their mobile phones. She passed the people now living in the open along the sandy main road, cooking, mending and a young boy read a textbook.
Her mother might be at the school, Fatia decided. A cry went up as she approached it and people came running.
A displaced young boy sleeps on the floor at a school in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. People left the cyclone-shattered city of Beira for the town of Buzi, which for a week people had been fleeing to with little but their clothes. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
"Mama!" She was there. They embraced on a concrete walkway now littered with cooking fires and tiny children, one nodding off beside a pile of still-warm ashes.
"My home is gone, but I'm also happy because I can see my family," Fatia said.
Her mother, Maria Antonio, said she had last seen Fatia the Tuesday before the storm. "I didn't know anything about her," she said. "I'm very happy to see her."
A displaced family arrives after being rescued by a boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
But the fate of her other daughter, in Quelimane, remains unknown.
It is a common heartbreak for thousands of families in central Mozambique, who have no way to learn about missing loved ones as destroyed communications networks struggle to return. People are desperately searching for family members separated by the flooding, destruction and death brought to the area more than a week ago by Cyclone Idai. Some will not be as lucky as Fatia.
The fishing boats between Buzi and Beira are now a lifeline, braving spattering rain, rolling waves and still the punching stench of death. Near Buzi, a dog's carcass hung from the branches of a tree.
A young boy walks through a muddy walkway in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Cut off from the world, people can easily panic. One member of the Mozambican Red Cross, Assane Paul, tried to calm a knot of people who had heard a rumor that another cyclone was on its way.
"If you don't answer well, we won't eat!" The people called out as he spoke to The Associated Press.
Other residents of Buzi try to adapt however they can, from the Bible reader on the rooftop blaming the cyclone on people's sins to the man walking down the road in soaking wet trousers. They were the only clothes left, he explained. It was very much wash and wear.
A woman walks along a flooded road in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Many people were still on the move. Dozens waited at Buzi's small pier where the fishermen's boats pull up, bags of belongings at their feet and concern on their faces. Or they simply watch for news.
The other end of the journey is the beach in Beira. Small children and barefoot women were carried off on a fishing boat and gathered together by aid workers in a spitting rain. Some looked lost. Few carried much. One small girl stood alone, hugging herself, her eyes wide and pleading.
"I hid in the mosque," said a 12-year-old boy, Ramadan Gulam. "I was there for a week." He had come from Buzi with nothing but a bag of clothes and his brothers. "My father said to go because the floods would come again. ... I don't know what to do now."
A group of men watch the arrival of a boat carrying displaced families rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Christina Machado came with her two children and a bandage on her ankle. It was cut by a tin roof during the cyclone, she said. It was treated just yesterday.
"I'm looking for my husband," she said. He had been working in Beira for two months. She didn't know where she would be taken next.
Francisco Mambonda spent about a week on a rooftop with nothing to eat. He and his wife and sons drank dirty water to survive.
A young girl is carried off the boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Barefoot, shivering and in tattered shorts, he added another plea to the growing chorus: "I don't know what to do now."
Emergency responders still have some hope.
As night fell and one wooden boat from Buzi approached the flickering, generator-lit Beira skyline, another passed in the dusk. It carried soldiers to their duties. Some raised their guns and cheered.
A young girl is carried off the boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Relatives and friends watch as the boat arrives from Buzi disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A man holding his child watches a boat carrying displaced familie arrive after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Two men rescue an animal using a boat in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
An elderly woman is assisted disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A man docks a boat carrying displaced families after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Children wait as their parents disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A young boy makes fire as he plays in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A fisherman navigates a wooden boat to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Children stand in-front of a business building in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Displaced families set up their bedding on top of the roof in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Passengers of a wooden boat travel to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Displaced families rest inside a damaged classroom in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
Relatives and friends watch as a boat arrives with people rescued from flooded areas to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)
A young boy sits outside their flooded house in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP PhotoThemba Hadebe)