Cyclone Chido is expected to touch Mayotte “at the end of the night” and unleash “destructive and even devastating winds”

The orange alert has already been in effect since Friday morning on the archipelago with heavy rain, gusts of wind and risk of marine submersion.

“Stay confined and do not go out under any circumstances”warn our colleagues from Mayotte La 1ère. As tropical cyclone Chido prepares to hit the French department of the Indian Ocean, the prefect of Mayotte announced that the archipelago has been placed on red alert since 10 p.m., Friday December 13, i.e. 8 p.m. in France . The day before, the latter had announced the placement of Mayotte on orange vigilance. “This is an unprecedented event, extremely violent, the winds could exceed 180 km/h”explained François-Xavier Bieuville during a press conference.

The prefect called on people housed in precarious housing, very numerous in the poorest department in France, to confine themselves to the accommodation centers opened by the authorities. At the start of the night, local time, the cyclone was approximately 230 km northeast of Mayotte according to the latest Météo-France bulletin. It should touch “at the end of the night” Mayotte and unleash “destructive or even devastating winds”.

The resigning Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau participated in a situation update at the operational center for interministerial crisis management in Paris, confirming the sending to Mayotte of 110 civil security professionals from the island of Reunion. Concomitantly with the red alert, traffic was prohibited on the public roads of the two islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre, and Dzaoudzi airport has been closed since 8 p.m. (6 p.m. Paris time).

The Regional Health Agency asks patients to “do not travel but call 15”and adds that “Medical resources have been strengthened to care for injured or sick people”. The local prefecture, on the social network “confined in a solid dwelling, with a suitable stock of water and food available”.