While Prime Minister François Bayrou and several members of his government are expected in Mayotte this Monday, December 30 after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido on December 14, Manon Corbière, from Nîmoise, experienced the events. After making an appeal to return to Nîmes, she was able to have a flight this Sunday afternoon.
Monday, December 30, Prime Minister François Bayrou and several members of his government will go to the bedside of the population of Mayotte, bruised after the terrible passage of Cyclone Chido on December 14.
A visit that Manon Corbière will finally see from afar, a Nîmoise stuck in Mamoudzou since the disaster and who will be able to take a flight this Sunday afternoon after waiting two weeks despite calls to the Mayotte prefecture. “These are very difficult conditions and humanly it is very hard to see such misery. […] My file is supposedly non-priority”, she said this Saturday.
The Gard oenologist is preparing this Sunday afternoon to emerge from this real nightmare even if she realizes that she had much more luck than those who lost everything there.
Registration for a flight to Reunion
To take a flight to Reunion before going to the mainland, she registered by email with the Mayotte prefecture. That's when she knew she wasn't on the priority list. This Saturday, she indicated: “It's been ten days since I made contact and I still haven't been called. […] I'm from Nîmes, on vacation. I don't see how I could be more of a priority other than breaking my leg! Foreigners were evacuated by their consulate, as were the sick. People stay at the airport for several days to hope for a place on this famous list!”
Finally, Manon Corbière will therefore be able to leave. She arrived in Mayotte on December 11 to see a teacher friend based there. Both were then scheduled to visit Tanzania.
But that was before Chido's destructive passage three days later… “My friend lives in Mamoudzou in the upper valleys. This area was relatively spared. We only had water in the apartment.”
Rehousing
Manon Corbière was, however, able to observe the state of the city some time after the disaster: “Recent buildings no longer had roofs or facades. We had a disastrous view of Kaweni, no more bangas (huts, editor's note), devastated premises. We took the road on Sunday morning to see the extent damage: permanent houses, villages, vegetation… everything was destroyed. People are devastated.
Some residents collected metal sheets the next day to build a makeshift shelter. Manon Corbière indicates that with her friend, they had more luck than others with water on the tap every two to three days, and electricity too, “the apartment being on the prison's electricity network. We were lucky to have electricity quickly.” Her teacher friend was able to accommodate acquaintances who had lost their homes.
The Nîmes resident was also able to go to supermarkets to pick up something like bags of rice, pasta, flour. She also had to collect water “in construction tanks”put up. With her teacher friend, they met in a school those who had lost their homes: “It was anarchy. People are fighting over rice. They are left to their own devices, wearing the same clothes for two weeks. The hardest thing is seeing people in such misery.” The Nîmes resident, moved, is now impatiently awaiting her return to the Gard, far from the open-air nightmare.
