Mayotte residents are in lockdown as Cyclone Chido began to bear down on the Indian Ocean archipelago on Saturday morning, placing it on purple alert, the highest level.
“It's slamming everywhere, I fear the worst”: the eye of the cyclone was located at 09:00 local time (07:00 Paris time) 30 km northeast of Petite-Terre, the eastern island of the archipelago, with gusts that were already exceeding 180 km/h but “will strengthen and could reach 200 to 230 km/h”, according to the latest bulletin from Météo-France.
Devastating winds greater than the intensity of Cyclone Kamisy in 1984, and which can be comparable to historical cyclones such as that of 1934, adds the meteorological service.
Electricity poles on the ground, tin roofs blown away and trees uprooted: barricaded in his family's concrete house north of Kangani, in the north of Grande-Terre, Ibrahim Mcolo described to AFP the first damage he saw from his window. “I see all the neighbors' metal sheets flying away. We see cables being torn off, the neighbor's banana tree on the ground. There is no more electricity. Even in our house which is well protected, the water is coming in. I can feel it shaking”.
From Ouangani City Hall, Mayor Youssouf Ambdi says he fears “the worst”. “We can't go out but this that is in front of us, it is impressive. It is certain that there will be material damage. Let us pray that there are no victims”, he testifies.
The purple cyclone alert, triggered at 05:00 local time (03:00 in Paris), implies “a strict confinement of the entire population, including emergency and security services and all agents mobilized to manage the crisis”, specifies a press release published on X from the prefecture of this overseas department.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“We are very afraid”, confided Fatima, a resident of Majicavo-Koropa still marked by the passage of a cyclone when she was a child in the neighboring Comoros, remembering the “waves (that) ravaged everything” and the “electric poles on the ground”. This mother of three stocked up on bottles of water, food and candles.
Météo-France is forecasting “very heavy rain and possible marine submersion”, weather conditions that will cause “a risk of runoff and flooding, and sea swell that could have significant effects on the coastline”, Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville said on Friday.
Traffic has been banned on public roads on both islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre, and Dzaoudzi airport has been closed since 8:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. in Paris).
The Regional Health Agency (ARS) is asking patients to “not travel but to call 15”, and adds that “medical resources have been increased to care for injured or sick people”. Météo-France forecasters anticipate an improvement in weather conditions “from late Saturday”.
Numerous precarious dwellings
For those living in precarious housing, which is very common in the poorest department in France, the prefect had earlier advised them to join one of the 71 accommodation centers “open to all” in schools and gymnasiums.
The priority concerns the approximately 100,000 people living in “unsound housing” who have been identified by the authorities, out of a total population estimated at 320,000 inhabitants in the archipelago.
In addition to the broadcasting of an SMS alert by the authorities, “municipal police officers went to each village”, indicated the prefect, especially in areas that are difficult to access.
“The priority is to keep people safe”, assured the mayor of Chiconi, Madi Ousseni Mohamadi, who has prepared the college in his town – closed Friday and Saturday like all schools in the archipelago – to welcome the population.
The mayor of this town which borders the coast has also deployed agents to “clear the roadsides of elements that could fly away and cause damage“, such as carcasses of cars.
One hundred and ten civil security professionals were sent to Mayotte from the island of La Réunion. The Mayotte archipelago, relatively spared by cyclones, had been hit by cyclone Belna in 2019, without major damage.
In the neighboring Comoros, the cyclone alert has also been activated. The General Directorate of Civil Security has ordered the closure of airports from Friday 6:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT) “due to extreme weather conditions”.
In Madagascar, the eye of the cyclone approached about a hundred kilometers from the north of the island and caused “heavy rain in the afternoon” as well as a “strong wind” before moving away, according to the authorities.
“Several neighborhoods are flooded” but “the worst seems to be behind us “We”, Cerveau Rakotoson, a resident of Antsiranana, the main city in the north of the island, told AFP.