Tropical Cyclone ELINE started out as a tropical disturbance over 2500 km east of Mauritius on 8 February where the sea surface temperature was in excess of 29 degrees Celcius. It then followed a relatively straightforward westward track arriving off the central eastern coast of Madagascar on 17 February. Here it intensified to the extent that the town of Mahanoro experienced gusts estimated at up to 250 km per hour with an 80% destruction of dwellings in places and several fatalities as it moved inland.
At 09:00 on the morning of 21 February 2000, Eline was located roughly 300 km south-east of Beira. At this time it was moving very slowly and by 02:00 on 22 February, it was lying 80 km off the coast of Beira. By this stage, its status had been upgraded from a tropical cyclone to an intense tropical cyclone. It was moving west-north-westwards at approximately 10 km per hour. The centre of the cyclone crossed the Mozambique coastline approximately 90 km south of Beira on the afternoon of 22 February 2000. At this stage the winds close to the eye of the cyclone were blowing at between 110 and 160 km per hour. These winds gave rise to very rough, high seas over the coastal areas of Mozambique within a 90-210 km radius of the centre. Whereas Beira experienced destructive wind damage with several fishing vessels sunk, its rainfall was relatively low (only 17.6 mm for 22 February compared with 118 mm at Inhambane for the same period, further south). The heaviest rainfall was thus concentrated in the spiral rain-bands some distance from the centre.
By 02:00 on 23 February, Eline was located overland about 200 km south-east of Harare. At this point it was moving in a north-westerly direction at approximately 20 km per hour. Despite the fact that it was weakening, a large amount of rain was still recorded over the northern parts of South Africa, and over Zimbabwe and southern Botswana. Heavy rainfall continued until 25 February 2000 over northern South Africa, but persisted until the end of the month in Botswana and Namibia as the residual low pressure from Eline moved in a south-westerly direction towards the coast of Namibia.
An enormous amount of rain had already been received in the first 14 days of February 2000. Extensive flooding and subsequent damage had been recorded throughout the Northern Province and Mpumalanga and parts of North-West Province and Gauteng. The rivers had barely had a chance to subside when tropical cyclone Eline caused extensive rainfall over northern Mpumalanga and the Northern Province. Rivers once again came down in flood, this time devastating already suffering communities. In South Africa, the areas affected most by this second bout of flooding were Thohoyandou, Giyani, Messina and Louis Trichardt. More that 23 people died in the flooding and thousands were left homeless.
The economic impact of the floods in the northern parts of South Africa is extreme. Flood damage is estimated at R1.7 billion. Nearly R880 million of this amount is required just to repair roads, bridges and drainage systems. It is estimated that almost 120 000 families in the province are short of food. Most of the commercial farmers in the Northern Province have lost more than 50% of the crops that were destined for export.
In Mozambique, more than 500 000 people were left homeless by what have been termed the worst floods in 50 years. The flooding in Mozambique resulting directly from the effects of the cyclone was compounded when the rivers that flow through Mozambique to the sea from South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe caused massive quantities of water to pour into the already devastated region.