Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said his country would not have been able to prepare for the impact of Cyclone Freddy even with "advanced notice" as it reels following Freddy's landfall.
On Wednesday, families of the victims gathered in the country's second largest city Blantyre for an emotional mass funeral ceremony attended by the president, grieving relatives and sympathizers.
The overall death toll from Tropical Cyclone Freddy, one of the longest-lasting and most powerful storms on record in the southern hemisphere, has risen above 270 with the majority of the dead in Malawi.