The French Indian Ocean Territory of Mayotte has been devastated after Cyclone Chido made landfall and flattened entire communities with heavy rainfall and winds that reached more than 200km/h.

Published 2 months ago

Strongest Storm in More than 90 Years

Located north-west of Madagascar, Mayotte is an archipelago comprising the main island of Grand-Terre and several smaller ones.

French Weather Forecasting service Meteo-France said Cyclone Chido was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years.

Most of the island’s 300,000 or so inhabitants live in shacks with sheet metal roofs, and tens of thousands of people have lost their homes.

Thousands feared killed

Media reports are saying that several hundred people, potentially thousands, are feared to have been killed according to senior local French officials.

“I think there will certainly be several hundreds, maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands,” Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said on local media channel Mayotte La 1ere.  Asked about the death toll of several hundred, the French Interior Ministry said “it will be difficult to account for all victims” and said a figure could not be determined at this stage.

After hitting Mayotte, the storm intensified overnight as it crossed the Mozambique Channel, battering Mozambique’s coastal city of Pemba with heavy rains and winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph).

The cyclone then moved inland, with heavy rains reported in neighbouring Nampula province.  While the winds are expected to ease, heavy rain and flooding are also predicted for southern Malawi and later Zimbabwe.

Cyclone Season – December to March

Cyclone season in the region runs from December to March, and parts of the south-eastern Indian Ocean and southern Africa have been hit by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.

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Related News:

• Hundreds Feared Dead as Cyclone Chido Devastates French Island of Mayotte (The Guardian)
• Thousands Feared Dead After Cyclone Chido hits French Island Territory of Mayotte (The Age – Australia)
• Several Hundred Feared Dead after Mayotte Cyclone (BBC News)

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