SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION, France: Cyclone Chido inflicted “catastrophic” damage on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Saturday, a senior local official told AFP, battering the archipelago with winds of up to 220 kmph. “We don’t know if anyone has been killed but, given the damage, it’s likely,” said Madi Madi Souf, head of the Mayotte mayors’ association, who was himself in mainland France. “It’s a catastrophic situation,” he added.

“There already seems to be very significant damage,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X. He added that 140 fresh troops and firefighters would be sent to the scene on Sunday to help with recovery, more than doubling the deployment sent earlier in the week. Mayotte had been placed on violet alert — the highest — ahead of the passage of Chido, whose eye swept across the north of the archipelago from east to west on its way towards Mozambique on the African mainland.

Weather authority Meteo France recorded winds of at least 226 km per hour at Pamandzi airport. But conditions were expected to calm later on Saturday as the cyclone moved away. On the ground, more than 15,000 homes were without electricity, Environment Minister Agnes-Pannier-Runacher posted on X. “Even emergency responders are locked down. There’s no mobile phone service and we can’t reach people on the island,” the head of Mayotte’s firefighters’ union, Abdoul Karim Ahmed Allaoui, told the BFM news channel.

“Even buildings built to earthquake standards haven’t held up. The emergency services command center has been evacuated and is functioning at partial capacity,” he added. The violet alert posted on X by the local prefecture had ordered “strict lockdown for the whole population, including emergency services” from 7:00 am (0400 GMT), before the eye of the storm was due to pass over northern Mayotte.

Road traffic was also banned and the archipelago’s main airport, Dzaoudzi, was closed. A resident on the main island of Grande Terre, Ibrahim Mcolo, described fallen electricity masts, roofs ripped off homes and trees uprooted as the first gusts struck. “There is no more electricity,” he told AFP from his home, where he had barricaded himself in. “Even in our house, which is well protected, the water is getting in. I can feel it trembling.”

Shanty towns

The authorities have turned more than 70 schools and gyms into shelters. They have given priority to the 100,000 residents assessed as living in the most vulnerable homes in France’s poorest territory. Mayotte’s many shanty towns, built on exposed slopes, were especially vulnerable to the high winds, fire union chief Allaoui said. “We’re really scared,” said Fatima, a resident of the village of Majicavo-Koropa on the eastern coast. The 57-year-old told AFP she had stocked up on bottles of water, food and candles.

Meteo France had warned early on Saturday that Chido’s winds could prove more intense than 1984’s cyclone Kamisy, which left thousands without shelter in France’s poorest department and remains graved on islanders’ memories. It warned of “heavy rain leading to floods and dangerous sea conditions” in the wake of the storm. Youssouf Ambdi, mayor of Ouangani in the centre of Grande Terre island, said he feared “the worst”. “There’s banging everywhere. We can’t go outside but what we can see is striking. There will definitely be material damage. Let’s pray no-one is killed,” he told AFP.

The regional health agency said: “Medical resources have been reinforced to take care of injured or sick people.” A cyclone alert was also in place and airports closed in the neighboring Comoros archipelago, and residents reported flooding in Madagascar to the east. — AFP