Downgraded to the rank of tropical storm, Dikeledi was approaching the Mayotte archipelago on Sunday morning. The first floods were reported on the south coast.
The rains on Sunday fell on the village of Mbouini, one of the rare localities to have been spared by Cyclone Chido which ravaged the island less than a month ago.
At 12:14 p.m. local time (10:14 a.m. in Paris), the tropical storm was 120 km south of Mayotte, Météo-France indicated in its latest situation update. Dikeledi was moving in a west-southwest direction at a speed of 30 km/h. The storm is expected to pass more than 100 km south of the archipelago.
On the island, rain and wind intensified in the morning. ‘Very heavy rain which may cause flash floods, flooding and landslides is expected in the coming hours and much of the day. Gusts of up to 80 to 90 km/h are possible, particularly on the southern part of the island, Météo-France warned.
The Mayotte-La 1ère channel broadcast images of the village of Mbouini ‘completely flooded and devastated’. In Hamouro (east), the ravines were in flood. Rain falling ‘torrentially’ was reported in Pamandzi, in the south of the island of Petite-Terre.
The population of Mayotte, which has 320,000 inhabitants, has been confined since Saturday evening at 10:00 p.m. local time with a ban on travel until further notice, the island having been placed under red cyclone alert since Saturday evening.
Throughout the duration of the alert, all traffic is prohibited except for emergency services and authorized people.
But in Mamoudzou, people were in the street, local media journalists noted, some taking advantage of the rain to wash their vehicles.
‘have’
Eighty emergency accommodation centers (schools, MJC, mosques, etc.), set up in all the municipalities of the archipelago, accommodate some 14,500 people, the Ministry of Overseas told AFP. sea, specifying that for the moment the situation was ‘calm’.
Some municipalities have had to shelter more people compared to Chido, while having fewer open centers.
The population was called upon to stock up on water and food to ‘weather the cyclone’, urged the prefecture.
Barge traffic (local ferries) was stopped on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. local, Marcel-Henry international airport from 4:00 p.m. local.
After reaching the northeast coast of Madagascar on Saturday afternoon, the cyclone began to weaken and was downgraded to the stage of a strong tropical storm, with wind gusts reaching 150 km/h at sea in gusts, according to Météo-France.
The tropical storm is expected to be classified as a tropical cyclone again on Monday. In the coming hours, Dikeledi ‘will continue to intensify, possibly reaching the stage of an intense tropical cyclone by making a turn towards the south then the south-east at the start of next week’, according to Météo-France.
In terms of impacts, the province of Antsiranana in Madagascar has suffered the most intense conditions in recent hours. But the winds should gradually decrease, as well as the intense rains. The sea remains dangerous on the west coast.
In the Comoros, heavy rain is expected during the day, particularly on the hills.
In Mozambique, Dikeledi could approach the coast of Nampula province on Monday. Heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous sea conditions with marine flooding are possible.
‘Very worried’
Some 645 Civil Security personnel have been pre-positioned in strategic locations in the archipelago to intervene as quickly as possible following the cyclone alert.
Overseas Minister Manuel Valls assured AFP on Saturday that ‘nothing (had been) left to chance’ to ensure the security of the Mahorais.
‘We are very worried given what happened the first time,’ Ali Ahmed, a resident of Mamoudzou, told an AFP correspondent on site, before being confined.
Chido caused colossal damage, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 5,600 people, destroying many precarious and permanent dwellings of the 101st French department.
Cyclones usually develop in the Indian Ocean from November to March. This year, surface waters are close to 30°C in the area, which provides more energy for storms, a global warming phenomenon also observed this fall in the North Atlantic and the Pacific.
/ATS
