Emergency workers were searching for survivors on Monday and struggling to restore services in Mayotte, France's poorest overseas region, where hundreds, if not thousands, are feared dead. dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.
Cyclone Chido devastated large parts of the islands off East Africa over the weekend with winds of more than 200 km/h, sweeping homes over hillsides and cutting telephones, power and water drink
With areas still inaccessible, France's acting Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, said it would take days to determine the extent of damage and deaths when he reached the disaster zone.
France has rushed crews and supplies to the devastated area to provide aid after the cyclone, but the damage has been compounded by years of poverty for which France has been criticized.
On Monday, residents were queuing outside grocery stores in search of water and other basics.
“It really is a war landscape. I don't recognize anything anymore. There's not even a tree left, the hills, there's not a blade of grass, it's amazing,” Mayotte resident Camille Cozon Abdourazak told Reuters by video call after power was restored.
“I found an open shop that had water. There was still some tin of milk left, so I was able to buy a tin of milk for my child and one for my friend's child next door.”
Teacher Hamada Ali described streets covered in mud and trees. People were taking shelter in schools and bottled water was being used for cooking, he said.
“Houses with sheet metal roofs were swept away by the cyclone,” he said.
Communications were down in large parts of the country, leaving relatives outside wondering desperately on social media. “I need an update from Chiconi please, my brother, sister-in-law and niece are there and I've had no news since Saturday,” one said.
France's interior minister arrived in Mayotte on Monday after Cyclone Chido devastated large parts of the archipelago off East Africa, with fears of a huge death toll in the packed region.
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to hold an emergency meeting about Mayotte later on Monday. France's lower house of parliament observed a moment of silence.
Acting health minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said Mamoudzou's main hospital was maintaining operations after floodwaters damaged surgical and intensive care units while a field clinic was set up and 100 additional medics deployed. .
More than three quarters of Mayotte's 321,000 people live in relative poverty. According to 2021 figures from the statistics agency INSEE, Mayotte has a median annual disposable income of just over 3,000 euros ($3,150) per inhabitant, about eight times less than the Ile-de-France region of about Paris.
Biggest storm in 90 years
The archipelago, near the Comoros Islands, first came under French control in 1841. Mayotte is made up of two main islands over an area about twice the size of Washington, DC
It has been embroiled in unrest in recent years, with many residents angry about undocumented immigration and inflation.
The region has become a stronghold for the far-right National Rally with 60 percent voting for Marine Le Pen in the run-up to the 2022 presidential election.
Chido was the strongest storm to hit Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said.
Extreme weather events have become more common worldwide, in line with global warming. Poorer countries often say they are coping with the environmental crisis despite emitting far less CO2 than richer countries.
“It was obvious… when a bike hit…
The region was already weakened by years of drought, which was exacerbated by persistent underinvestment and which brought scrutiny to French governance and aid to the far-flung regions. In 2023, Mayotte had its driest year since 1997, with residents reporting that the taps only run one day out of three.
Around the land, hundreds of mobile homes were broken and scattered by the cyclone, according to images from local media and the French gendarmerie. Coconut trees fell through the roofs of buildings, boats were destroyed, cars covered in debris and people went under tables when the cyclone hit.
“I was screaming because I could see the end coming for me,” John Balloz, who lives in the capital Mamoudzou, told Reuters.
After Mayotte, Chido made landfall in northern Mozambique where it quickly weakened and was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday but still destroyed several houses, authorities said.
Mayotte's chief executive, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, said at the weekend that deaths would certainly be in the hundreds and possibly several thousand.
Sea and air operations were underway to transport relief supplies and equipment, including from Reunion Island, another French overseas territory, French authorities said.
Mayotte's main airport, however, was still closed to civilian flights on Monday morning, said Jean-Paul Bosland, president of France's national federation of firefighters.
