Since 5 a.m. this Saturday, the inhabitants of Mayotte have been trying to protect themselves from Chido, an intense tropical cyclone which is sweeping the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, placed at the highest alert level.
“This is a serious time. Mayotte has never experienced such a situation”declared the president of the departmental council, Ben Issa Ousseni, on Friday. At the end of the night, local time, the prefecture of Mayotte announced the entry into force on the archipelago of the violet cyclone alert, the highest level, from 7 a.m. local (5 a.m. in Paris), due to of Chido's imminent arrival.
The purple level involves “strict confinement of the entire population, including emergency and security services and all agents mobilized to manage the crisis”specifies a press release published on X from the prefecture of this overseas department. “The eye of the cyclone will pass over the north of Mayotte between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., causing a false calm”warned the prefecture.
Around 6 a.m. local time, the cyclone was approximately 100 km northeast of Mayotte according to the latest Météo-France bulletin. “A deterioration in weather conditions is expected” at the end of the night, with “destructive or even devastating winds”. In its bulletin, Météo-France underlines that Chido “suffered a slight drop in intensity in recent hours” but that it should remain at a “significant intensity” during the “next 36 hours”.
“An unprecedented event, extremely violent”
“I stocked up on bottles of water, food, candles…” testifies to AFP Fatima, resident of Majicavo-Koropa and mother of three children, who fears “strong winds” and the “storms”. “We are very afraid”confides this 57-year-old woman, still marked by the passage of a cyclone when she was a child in the neighboring Comoros, remembering the “waves (which) ravaged everything” and “electricity poles on the ground”.
Saturday, Météo-France forecasts in Mayotte “very intense rain and possible marine submersion”weather conditions that cause “a risk of runoff and flooding, and sea swell which can have significant effects on the coastline”specified the prefect of Mayotte, François-Xavier Bieuville. “This is an unprecedented event, extremely violent, the winds could exceed 180 km/h”he stressed during a press conference.
Traffic has been banned on public roads on the two islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre, and Dzaoudzi airport has been closed since 8 p.m. (6 p.m. in Paris). The Regional Health Agency (ARS) asks patients to “do not travel but call 15”and adds that “Medical resources have been strengthened to care for injured or sick people.” Météo-France forecasters anticipate an improvement in weather conditions “from Saturday at the end of the day”.
Many precarious homes
To those who live in precarious housing, very numerous in the poorest department in France, the prefect had earlier advised to join one of the 71 accommodation centers “open to all” in schools and gymnasiums. The priority concerns are the approximately 100,000 people living in “unsound dwellings” which were identified by the authorities, out of a total population estimated at 320,000 inhabitants in the archipelago.
In addition to the broadcast of an SMS alert by the authorities, “the municipal police went to each village”indicated the prefect, particularly in difficult-to-access neighborhoods. “The priority is to keep people safe”assures the mayor of Chiconi, Madi Ousseni Mohamadi, who is preparing the college in his commune – closed Friday and Saturday like all educational establishments in the archipelago – to welcome the population. The mayor of this town which borders the coast has also deployed agents to “clear the roadsides of elements that could fly away and cause damage”like car wrecks.
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. The Mayotte archipelago, relatively untouched by cyclones, was hit by cyclone Belna in 2019, without major damage.
In neighboring Comoros, an orange level cyclone alert has been activated. The General Directorate of Civil Security has ordered the closure of airports from Friday 6 p.m. local time “due to extreme weather conditions.” In Madagascar, the eye of the cyclone approached about a hundred kilometers from the north of the island and caused rain “abundant in the afternoon” as well as a “strong wind” before moving away, according to authorities. “Several neighborhoods are flooded” more “the hardest part seems to be behind us”, Cerveau Rakotoson, a resident of Antsiranana, the main town in the north of the island, told AFP.
