Many residents of Rennes are trying to contact their loved ones in Mayotte, after gusts of more than 220 km/h swept the Indian Ocean archipelago yesterday, Saturday December 14, when Cyclone Chido focused on the South of the chain of islands. Considered more devastating than the 1984 cyclone, the provisional toll, at least 14 dead, could increase by the hour.
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“My mother called me yesterday morning, Saturday at 8 a.m., but the communication was cut off immediately. Since then, I haven't been able to reach her, I'm very worried”. Catherine, a 42-year-old from Mahor who has lived in Rennes for ten years, lives in anguish. Cyclone Chido is announced as very deadly, with 14 deaths recorded this Sunday morning, in a report described as very provisional. But on social networks, the mother sees messages appearing announcing more than 30 deaths.
“My mother lives in a tin hut in Kahani,” a village southwest of Mamoudzou, the capital of the department. “She is having a concrete house built next to her hut, but the house still has no windows or doors. I hope she took refuge in the concrete house after all.” Sheet metal housing concerns a third of the 320,000 inhabitants of Mayotte. Catherine tirelessly tries to contact her mother, as she tries to contact one of her daughters, who has returned to live in Mayotte with her father. “My daughter lives in a concrete house, but I am still very worried.”
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