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France is bracing for a heavy dying toll in its Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, its poorest division, after cyclone Chido ravaged the island over the weekend and threatened a humanitarian disaster.
“I believe there’ll absolutely be a number of hundred [deaths], we could even method a thousand, and even hundreds,” François-Xavier Bieuville, Mayotte’s prefect, advised an area tv channel. Winds from the tropical storm reached speeds of greater than 225km/h on Saturday.
France’s inside ministry was unable to verify Bieuville’s estimates. Caretaker inside minister Bruno Retailleau arrived in Mayotte on Monday to handle the harm wreaked by Chido.
“The island is devastated,” he mentioned at a press convention in Mayotte. “Don’t ask me the entire [of the dead] . . . I’d be utterly unable to provide you any figures.”
Météo France mentioned that the storm was the strongest to hit the island territory in 90 years.
President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on Monday night that he would go to the island territory in “the approaching days”, saying on X: “Confronted with this tragedy that strikes us all, I’ll declare a interval of nationwide mourning.”
The yr 2024 is on track to be the warmest recorded, with November the second-warmest month on land and at sea.
The surplus warmth saved in oceans has helped drive robust hurricane exercise this yr, with “extremely excessive” temperatures within the Indian Ocean contributing to cyclone Chido’s energy, mentioned Helen Hooker, a meteorologist on the College of Studying.
Hurricane Beryl, which brought on extensive damage to some Caribbean islands and left thousands and thousands with out energy in Texas in July, was the earliest class 5 hurricane on file.
Whereas scientists had forecast the trail of cyclone Chido final week, islanders struggled to evacuate when it hit over the weekend as a result of they’d nowhere to go.
Alex Baker, one other meteorologist on the college, mentioned that the cyclone’s peak energy had been “considerably underestimated” partly as a result of it had intensified quickly. It was stronger than storms sometimes seen within the area at the moment of yr due to its comparatively straight path westward over the Indian Ocean, he added.
The storm skirted the island of Madagascar, which may have acted as a brake, and continued as a substitute to select up vitality from the warmth saved within the sea — one of many “key components” for hurricanes.
It then hit Mayotte — which lies west of Madagascar, between that island’s northern finish and the African mainland — and likewise brought on harm round Pemba in northern Mozambique.
Mayotte’s giant variety of unregistered migrants — the official inhabitants of 321,000 is taken into account a giant underestimate — will make it laborious to calculate the ultimate dying toll. Many migrants have been dwelling in shacks that have been destroyed by the cyclone.
Mayotte’s hospital was hit by the hurricane however is “restarting progressively its actions”, Retailleau mentioned. Will probably be supported by a discipline hospital from Thursday.
The human tragedy additionally poses political challenges for President Emmanuel Macron and François Bayrou, his new prime minister, at a time when a caretaker authorities is in place.
“The priority isn’t just for the brief time period and the aid and help that we will present however it is usually for the medium time period: water provide, meals provide, particularly for probably the most delicate locations — prisons, detention centres,” mentioned Bayrou. “All these are danger elements that pile up.”
Along with the massive variety of migrants, the Muslim custom of burying the lifeless inside 24 hours have been additionally prone to complicate efforts to make an correct rely of the victims, the inside ministry mentioned.
The French authorities is sending 1,500 individuals together with medical workers, law enforcement officials and military officers to the island to take care of the emergency, having despatched 110 despatched final week to arrange for the approaching storm.
The authorities have additionally dispatched satellite tv for pc transmission tools, planes with water and meals from France and the abroad territory of Réunion island, and electrical workers from state-owned vitality group EDF to assist restore Mayotte’s ravaged infrastructure.
