“When we act in such a context, we feel so useful…”. Jules Waldhart will remember his first emergency mission for a long time. A volunteer with the Concarneau Red Cross for three years, this 34-year-old physics and chemistry teacher returned from Mayotte on Saturday. “There, you have to constantly make the effort to remember that you are in a French department,” he says.
On Saturday December 14, Cyclone Chido devastated this archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The next day, all Red Cross volunteers receive a call for availability. Jules Waldhart did not hesitate for long, offering himself up for the school holiday period. “I had never carried out an emergency operation,” he said. But I told myself that people needed us. And it would be difficult.”
“The razed hills”
On December 23, around fifty volunteer rescuers, including three from Finistère, arrived in Mayotte. “We didn’t really know what to expect,” confides Jules. Hangars laid down along the landing strip, military cargo planes… The first contact is a shock. “It was impressive,” he said. What comes next is worse, when you leave the airport. “The destroyed infrastructure, the razed hills, and the very strong police presence…”.
The first hours are devoted to settling into their accommodation, a college, also damaged by the cyclone. “We had prepared ourselves for very precarious conditions. But we were lucky to live in good conditions,” summarizes Jules.
Restoring family ties
The first missions consist of going to villages and bangas (slums). “Get in touch with the population, do reconnaissance,” explains the Concarnois resident. We were with volunteers trained in restoring family links.” The task is immense, with so many residents no longer having contact with their loved ones, without electricity to recharge their cell phones.
On the ground, Jules went to the north, around ten days after the cyclone. “We were the first people from outside the village that the residents saw,” he says. We were well received, but we felt a certain frustration. How had they been able to survive with nothing all this time? They rebuilt, organized, among themselves.”
“We felt the people touched”
As the days go by, rescuers also inform the population about the reopening of health services and food distributions. They practice little care. “For wounds lasting more than ten days, people injured by the cyclone, there was not much we could do. We are not trained for that, nor to give antibiotics.” And he continues: “We felt the people touched by this mobilization.”
The Concarne first aid worker is quickly assigned, due to his training and professional skills, to the Red Cross base, between management and logistics. “Ensure that we live well there”. Before being entrusted with responsibility for the fleet of around thirty vehicles used by the association.
“These crisis situations will recur”
Looking back, Jules Waldhart says he is touched. “To see the resilience of people.” To understand that “the misery in which we saw them is also their everyday misery”. And “shocked” to see the official death toll stand at 39. “It’s amazing, with all the reports we have of makeshift burials,” he said. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths.”
Since then, other volunteers have taken over. Jules plans to continue on the path of crisis situations. “I’m thinking about joining the Red Cross Emergency Response Teams,” he says. Because for him, there is no doubt: “We know that these crisis situations will recur, more and more often.”
To note
The Red Cross has set up a cash donation collection on its website www.croix-rouge.fr
