Rescuers seek survivors, count dead in cyclone-hit Mayotte

By Dominique Vidalon and Abdou Moustoifa

PARIS/MORONI (Reuters) -Emergency workers sought survivors on Monday and struggled to restore services in Mayotte, France’s poorest overseas territory, where hundreds or even thousands are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.

Cyclone Chido devastated large parts of the archipelago off east Africa over the weekend with winds of more than 200 kph (124 mph), strewing homes over hillsides, and cutting phones, power and drinking water.

With areas still inaccessible, France’s acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on arrival in the disaster zone that it would take days to find the full extent of damage and deaths.

“The images are apocalyptic. It’s a disaster, there’s nothing left,” an intensive care nurse named Oceane at the main hospital in the capital Mamoudzou told BFM TV.

Teacher Hamada Ali told Reuters that streets were covered in mud and trees, people were sheltering in schools and bottled water was being used for cooking.

“I saw someone injured by a sheet of metal … Houses with sheet metal roofs were swept away by the cyclone. There are precarious dwellings of which we cannot see the slightest trace,” he added.

Residents queued outside grocery stores in search of water and other basics.

Communications were down in large parts of the territory, leaving relatives outside desperately enquiring on social media. “I need an update from Chiconi please, my brother, my sister-in-law and my niece are there and I’m without any news since Saturday,” said one.

French President Emmanuel Macron was to hold an emergency meeting about Mayotte later on Monday. Acting health minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said Mamoudzou’s main hospital was maintaining operations after floodwaters had been cleared while a field clinic would be 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 statistics agency INSEE, Mayotte has an annual median disposable income of just over 3,000 euros ($3,150) per inhabitant, roughly eight times less than the Ile-de-France region around Paris.

BIGGEST STORM IN 90 YEARS

The islands, close to the Comoros archipelago, first came under France’s control in 1841. Mayotte is made up of two main islands over an area about twice the size of Washington DC.

It has been grappling with unrest in recent years, with many residents angry at undocumented immigration and inflation.

The territory has become a stronghold for the far-right National Rally with 60% voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election runoff.

Chido was the strongest storm to strike Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said.

Extreme weather events have become more common around the globe, in keeping with global warming. Poorer nations often say they are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis despite historically emitting far less CO2 than richer countries.

“It was evident that … when a cyclone hit … we would find ourselves in a situation,” leftwing lawmaker Eric Coquerel told French broadcaster LCI, saying the destruction in Mayotte laid bare a failure to prepare for the impact of climate change.

Around the territory, hundreds of makeshift houses were smashed and scattered, according to images from local media and the French gendarmerie. Coconut trees crashed through building roofs, boats were upended, rubble covered cars and people cowered 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 north Mozambique where it quickly weakened and was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday but still destroyed several houses, authorities said.

The prefect of Mayotte, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, said at the weekend that deaths would definitely be in the hundreds and possibly several thousand.

Maritime and aerial 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, remained closed to civilian flights on Monday morning, said Jean-Paul Bosland, the president of France’s national firefighters’ federation.

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(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Bertrand Boucy in Paris, Abdou Moustoifa in Moroni, Diana Mandia in Gdansk, Aaron Ross and Ammu Kannampilly in Nairobi; writing by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)