The death toll from Typhoon Chido in Mayotte could be in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, as France rushed in aid workers and supplies, a senior official said Sunday.
Their efforts would be hampered by damage to airfields and power distribution in the French Indian Ocean region.
Even before the storm passed, there was a severe shortage of clean drinking water.
“I think there will be several hundred, maybe we will get close to a thousand or even several thousand” deaths, prefect Francois-Xavier Bivel told broadcaster Muti-la-Première.
He added that it would be “very difficult to reach a final count” because most residents are Muslim, traditionally burying their dead within 24 hours.
A previous tool shared with AFP A security source confirmed only 14 casualties.
Earlier on Sunday, the mayor of Mamoudzo, the capital of Mayotte, Ambadalwahidhu Somaila said AFP Nine people were fighting for their lives in hospital, while another 246 were seriously injured.
“Hospitals are affected, schools are affected. Houses are destroyed,” he said. He added that the storm “didn’t leave anything behind”.
With the French Interior Ministry estimating that around 100,000 people live clandestinely in Mayotte, an accurate determination would be doubly difficult.
Some of them did not dare to go out and seek help, fearing that “it will be a trap” set up to remove them from Mayotte,” said Osini Balahachi, a former nurse.
He added that many people stayed “until the last minute” when it was too late to escape the storm.
Scramble for supplies
Medical personnel and supplies were being flown in by air and sea since Sunday, said the prefecture in La Réunion, another French Indian Ocean region about 1,400 kilometers on the other side of Madagascar.
A first medical plane landed in Mayotte at 3:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) with three tons of medical supplies, blood transfusions and 17 medical personnel, officials in La Reunion said, followed by two military planes. .
A naval patrol ship was also scheduled to depart from La Réunion with personnel and equipment, including electricity supplier EDF.
Mayotte’s 320,000 residents were ordered into lockdown on Saturday as Cyclone Chido made landfall on islands 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Mozambique with winds of at least 226 kilometers per hour.
Electricity poles were knocked to the ground, trees were uprooted and sheet metal roofs and walls were torn down, which is home to at least a third of the population.
Ibrahim, a resident said AFP About “apocalyptic scenes” as he traversed the main island to clear blocked roads for himself.
Interior Minister Bruno Retellio will travel to Mayotte on Monday, his office said, with 160 soldiers and firefighters to reinforce the 110 already stationed on the islands.
Pope Francis visited the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Sunday, urging people to pray for the residents of Mayotte.
Cyclone hits Mozambique
Just northwest of Mayotte, the Comoros Islands, some of which had been on red alert since Friday, were also hit but suffered only minor damage.
Cyclone Chido later brought strong winds and heavy rain to Mozambique, making landfall 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the northern city of Pemba on Sunday morning, the weather service said.
It damaged buildings and knocked out power in parts of Mozambique’s northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado on Saturday morning, officials said.
But by midday Chido was traveling inland into Nyasa province and had weakened, said Louisa McKay, president of the National Institute for Risk and Disaster Management.
UNICEF said it was on the ground to help people affected by the storm.
“Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or destroyed and we are working with the government to ensure the continuity of essential basic services,” it said in a statement.
According to experts, Cyclone Chido is the latest in a series of storms caused by climate change around the world.
Francois Guerand, a meteorologist with Meteo France’s weather service, said the “unusual” storm was supercharged by particularly warm waters in the Indian Ocean. AFP.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that it was equivalent to the strength of Cyclone Gombe in 2022 and Cyclone Freddie in 2023. They killed more than 60 people respectively and at least 86 in Mozambique.
OCHA warned that about 1.7 million people were at risk, and said the remnants of the storm could also dump “significant rain” on neighboring Malawi by Monday, potentially leading to flooding.
Heavy rains are also expected in Zimbabwe and Zambia, he added.