Cyclone Chido causes significant damage in Mayotte, still on red alert

Streets littered with branches and tin roofs flying away like sheets of paper. The passage of Cyclone Chido has already caused significant damage in Mayotte on Saturday December 14. The archipelago, placed on purple alert then red in the middle of the day, remains confined while emergency services are hard at work to help the first injured. On social networks, several residents posted images taken from their windows or in their ravaged homes.

“Friends, I no longer have a home! Chido took everything…”says a man facing his collapsed ceiling. “The whole house flew down the road”says another woman while filming her devastated neighborhood. Contacted on Saturday morning by France 2, Mathilde Boucher, journalist and resident of Mayotte, spoke of power and telephone network outages. “There are injured people, people who have taken metal to their arms, their bodies…”she reports.

On the social network(New window)the new Prime Minister, François Bayrou, assured that “lThe State continues to mobilize all of its resources to be with our compatriots in Mayotte“. “I call on the population to exercise the greatest caution“, wrote the head of government, who said he was keeping himself informed “hour by hour”. For his part, the President of the Republic declared on “it’s time for urgency”. “We will be here today and tomorrow”he assured, that reinforcements and three tons of equipment will be sent to Mayotte from Sunday.