Mozambique island tourists woken by cyclone wrath

MAPUTO, Feb 24 (Reuters) Peter Thomas was peacefully sleeping in a lavish island resort off Mozambique when the full wrath of tropical cyclone Favio slammed into his chalet.

''I was in my room enjoying my sleep and suddenly found myself in a pool of water and the rooftop was being ripped off,'' the South African said in the capital Maputo after being airlifted from battered Bazaruto island.

''The front windows were smashed and I could see the roof and satellite dishes flying over our heads,'' said another tourist, who declined to be identified.

Thomas and other tourists who cowered for 12 hours in bathrooms at the Indigo Bay resort as the cyclone uprooted palm trees and ripped apart buildings were lucky.

At the hotel, 600km north of Maputo, no one died from the cyclone, which killed four people and injured at least 70 in the resort town of Vilanculos since hitting the coast on Thursday.

It was downgraded yesterday to a tropical storm as wind speeds dropped from a peak of 270 kph and dissipated further today, officials said.

This lessened worries that rain from the storm would exacerbate several weeks of flooding that had already displaced more than 120,000 people.

Neighbouring South Africa said today it would help in the relief effort, providing helicopters, tents and water treatment plants.

TOURISM IMPACT MUTED Lodges like Indigo Bay were reduced to rubble by the storm that hit the Bazaruto archipelago, a string of islands 40 km off the coast in the Indian Ocean dotted with luxury resorts.

Resorts there were especially vulnerable since they were constructed of natural materials like reed, thatch and wood to blend in with the tropical surroundings.

''The resort has been completely destroyed and they will have to shut it down for a couple of months,'' one of the tourists said.

A government official said the cyclone would not have a major impact on overall tourism in the country since other areas were spared by the storms.

''We have beautiful Islands in the northern Cabo Delgado and people still have destinations while we reconstruct Bazaruto,'' tourism ministry official Albino Mahumane told Reuters.

The former Portuguese colony, recovering from a devastating 16-year political conflict, saw its worst disaster on record in 2000-2001.

A series of cyclones then compounded widespread flooding in southern and central parts of the country, killing 700 people and driving close to half a million from their homes.

Reuters MS RS1924