Mozambican officials have now confirmed what people living in the Zambezi valley and along other rivers have suspected for at least a week: that in terms of water levels, the 2008 seasonal floods are worse than those of nearly a decade ago.

However the authorities and the Mozambique Red Cross (MRC) have been working flat-out in a so-far successful operation to move people away from immediate danger - especially along the Zambezi.

No directly flood-related deaths have been reported.

The head of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), Paulo Zucula, whose staff are in a race against fast-rising waters up and down the country, said Tuesday at least 55,000 people have now been successfully evacuated from vulnerable areas in small boats.

The MRC has contributed its own aquatic rescue teams, based at Mutarara and Mopeia, on the other side of the Zambezi from Caia, which has again become the hub of a major evacuation and relief effort.

The National Society has also deployed boats along the Buzi river, to the west of the port city of Beira. Despite a shortage of cash for fuel and outboards it has been able to move several hundred people.

"We now have about 500 volunteers involved round-the-clock in rescue operations," said Fernanda Teixeira, the secretary general of the Mozambique Red Cross, speaking in an interview with the International Federation.

"They are also helping to welcome displaced people in shelters set up by the government."

Cyclone season Now a new danger looms that could threaten resettled communities: cyclones.

The peak danger-period of the 2007-8 cyclone season is fast approaching, Teixeira points out. "We might have cyclones coming up like the one we had last year."

"Bearing in mind the pessimistic weather forecast, we are concerned that more people will be affected over the coming days." Mozambique's 2006-7 cyclone season was among the worst on record: Cyclone Favio made landfall in late February last year with winds of up to 250kph. The current seasonal rains in southern Africa - intensified by a La Niña in the Pacific and possibly climate change - have pushed rivers to danger level throughout the region since December.

The Buzi river is one of six now on the Mozambique government's danger list, together with the Save, Pungue, Licungo, Limpopo and the Zambezi itself.

The all-important discharge rate at the Cahora Bassa dam has now been reduced to 5,500 cubic metres per second from 6,600. But if forecasts for heavy rain upriver in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe prove accurate, it may have to be raised again, increasing the risk of disastrous flooding downstream in Mozambique.

Praying For the moment, the boat evacuations by the government and the MRC have kept pace. But that may not last: the capacity of both agencies is obviously finite.

Press reports in Maputo Wednesday spoke of some areas of Tete province being inaccessible either overland or by river - and now too wet for helicopters to land on. People are said to be clustering in pockets of high ground.

The whole of Mozambique is praying the rains hold off enough for this flood episode to continue as it appears to date: a triumph for disaster preparedness and evacuation drills.

"We need a strong response to the emergency situation," said Teixeria, "but we also need to concentrate on what happens in the medium and longer-term.

"This means helping people restore their livelihoods and coping mechanisms. It means building new health facilities close to the resettlement areas organized by the government for people who can no longer stay in their villages because they are too close to the river."