ThE French Indian Ocean territory’s health services have been severely damaged as rescuers raced to find survivors and family members searched for news of their loved ones after the country was hit by what has been described as the worst cyclone in 90 years.
“The hospital has suffered major water damage and destruction, notably in the surgical, intensive care, maternity and emergency units,” the French health minister, Geneviève Darrieussecq, told France 2 on Monday, adding that “medical centres were also non-operational”.
Cyclone Chido laid waste to many of the territory’s shantytowns, with hundreds believed dead. The powerful cyclone caused extensive damage to Mayotte’s airport, cutting off electricity, water and communication links when it battered France’s poorest territory on Saturday.
The official death toll on Monday morning was 20, according to the local TV station Mayotte la Première. However, Mayotte’s prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, also told the broadcaster that he expected the final death toll to reach “close to a thousand or even several thousand” and that it was the worst cyclone to hit the islands since 1934.
Videos of the storm showed metal shacks folding like cardboard in the ferocious wind and roofs collapsing inwards into flooded houses.
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Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, the mayor of Mayotte’s capital, Mamoudzou, told Agence France-Presse the storm “spared nothing”. “The hospital is hit. The schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said late on Monday that he would declare a day of national mourning, and visit Mayotte in the coming days. “This is about dealing with emergencies and starting to prepare for the future,” he wrote on X.
The country’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, landed in Mayotte on Monday morning, with 160 soldiers and firefighters reinforcing 110 already deployed.
“Don’t panic,” he told a meeting of officials. “I’m counting on you … When you feel discouraged, when you are tired, remember that we are here … Each and every one of you is committed to this, to this French ideal.”
Chido carried winds of at least 140mph (225km/h) when it reached Mayotte, which lies between Mozambique and Madagascar. At least a third of the territory’s 320,000 residents live in slums, where shacks were flattened by the storm.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
