Hundreds feared dead after cyclone

Mayotte residents have described ‘apocalyptic scenes’ caused by the worst storm to hit the French Indian Ocean territory in 90 years.

Cyclone Cydo brought wind speeds exceeding 225 km/h (140 mph) and flattened areas where the poorest people lived in sheet-roofed shacks.

“There has been no water for three days now,” said a resident of the capital, Mamoudzou. “Some of my neighbors are hungry and thirsty.” Another person said:

Rescue workers, including French reinforcements, are combing the wreckage for survivors. So far, 20 people have been confirmed dead, but the local governor said thousands could die.

Authorities said they were having difficulty determining the number of deaths because there were more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants out of a population of 320,000.

Emergency operations are being severely hampered by extensive damage to infrastructure, with downed power lines and impassable roads.

Supplies are starting to arrive, but there are severe shortages of food, water, and shelter in certain areas. About 85% of the territory is without power and about 20% of phones appear to be working. In some areas, tap water has begun to be supplied.

But access to water and food continues to be a concern for Amalia Mazon, a 27-year-old midwife from Brussels who works at the island’s central hospital.

Mr Mazzone told the BBC: “The water here is completely yellow. We can’t use it.”

“We feel completely abandoned and we don’t even know if help will come. There is no news, we have no idea,” the midwife added.

Acting French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq said the archipelago’s health system had been “underperformed” by the cyclone.

France colonized Mayotte in 1841. – And in the 20th century, the three main islands that make up the Comoros archipelago were added to its overseas territories.

The Comoros chose independence in 1974, but Mayotte decided to remain part of France.

The island’s population is heavily dependent on French financial support and suffers from poverty, unemployment and political instability.

About 75% of the population lives below the national poverty line, and unemployment is around one in three.

“The images are apocalyptic. It is a disaster. There is nothing left,” a nurse working at Mamoudzou’s main hospital told BFM TV.

Mamoudzou resident John Balloz said he was surprised he did not die when the cyclone struck.

“Everything is damaged. Almost everything, water treatment plants, electricity pylons, there is a lot of work to do.”

Mohamed Ishmael, who also lives in the capital, He told Reuters: “I felt like I was in the aftermath of a nuclear war. I saw entire neighborhoods disappear.”

“What worries me most is hunger,” Senator Salama Lamia Mayotte told French media. “There are people who haven’t been able to eat or drink anything since Saturday,” she said.

The island’s governor, François-Xavier Vieuxville, told local media the death toll could rise significantly once the damage is fully assessed. He warned that the number was “definitely in the hundreds” and could be in the thousands.

Mayotte’s impoverished communities, including undocumented migrants who have traveled to French territory to seek asylum, are thought to have been particularly hard hit by the vulnerable nature of their housing.

The Islamic tradition of burying the dead within 24 hours makes recording the death toll more difficult, the governor said.

In addition to the relief effort, 110 French troops have arrived to assist with the rescue, with 160 more expected to arrive. About 800 of the volunteers who help in emergency situations have also been sent to join local police units.

After arriving in Mayotte, French Interior Minister Bruno Ritaille said it would take “several days” to determine the casualties.

Relief efforts are being organized in Réunion, another French overseas territory.

French Red Cross spokesman Eric Sam Vah told the BBC the situation was “confusing”.

He expressed concern about the overall death toll, saying the organization had been able to contact only 20 of Mayotte’s 200 Red Cross volunteers.

“The entire slum has been completely destroyed,” a spokesperson told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “We have not yet received any reports of displacement.”

Cyclone Cido also made landfall in Mozambique, causing flooding, uprooting trees and damaging buildings about 40km south of the northern city of Pemba. Three deaths were reported.

The cyclone caused structural damage and power outages in the northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado on Saturday morning, local authorities said.

“We were hit hard in the early hours of this morning,” said Guy Taylor, a spokesman for UNICEF’s aid agency in Mozambique.

“Many houses were destroyed or seriously damaged, and health facilities and schools were out of action,” he added.

Mr Taylor said UNICEF was concerned about ‘loss of access to key services’ such as healthcare, clean water and sanitation and ‘the spread of diseases such as cholera and malaria’.

Chido is the latest deadly storm of this magnitude.

Sarah Keith-Lucas of the BBC Meteorological Center says the river’s long route across the ocean has made it stronger. If the cyclone had made landfall in Madagascar’s rugged terrain, it would have weakened.

But there are also cases where climate change affects the intensity of storms, not necessarily the frequency, says Keith-Lucas.

The storm has now been downgraded to a “low pressure area” and is expected to pass through southern Malawi and Mozambique’s Tete province before heading toward Zimbabwe overnight Tuesday.

Between 150 and 300 mm of rain could still fall by the end of Tuesday.

Additional reporting by Eva van Dam.