The compound in entrance of the blue and white low-rise constructing is buzzing with rushed exercise.
On one facet there are males stacking packing containers of water bottles. On one other, ladies sitting on chairs are selecting by means of bundles of clothes on the bottom earlier than folding and organising them into piles of males’s, ladies’s and youngsters’s sizes.
Directions are being shouted.
By the doorways of the home, within the lounge on the entrance, there’s extra urgency. Right here, some ladies are finding out child meals, nappies and sanitary merchandise.
That is the local people response to a name for emergency help after Mayotte was devastated by Cyclone Chido on Sunday.
Work to assemble help is beneath manner
The help is being collected right here in a neighbourhood in Reunion’s capital Saint-Denis, an island east of Madagascar.
That is the place Somo helps. She’s sporting a black hijab and her face is framed by her black-rimmed spectacles.
Somo got here to Reunion to review regulation two years in the past. Her mum Echat, dad Saindu and sister Kaounaini dwell on Mayotte.
Somo has had no contact with any of them because the lethal storm tore by means of the island on Sunday.
Somo
“I am actually fearful,” she tells me. She’s very softly spoken and is smiling nervously. Nevertheless it’s straightforward to see Somo’s desperation. “I am simply dying ready for information,” she provides.
Somo is aware of her mom and father are alive as a result of phrase has reached her from different group members who reported seeing them after the lethal storm.
However there isn’t any information about her sister and her six youngsters aged between two and 16 years previous. They’re all nonetheless lacking.
Somo has been frantically calling their numbers continuous since Sunday, however no person has answered.
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1000’s feared lifeless after cyclone
The household’s house has been utterly destroyed. Somo is determined to ship cash to them however there is no manner of doing so.
She’s particularly fearful about her father as a result of he is alone.
Learn extra:
Before and after pictures show storm’s damage
What we know about worst storm in over 90 years
“I do not know if he has any meals or water or something,” she says.
As I’m about to depart, Somo tries to name them once more. She waits, wanting on the cellphone display screen in hope and in desperation. However there’s nonetheless no reply.
