France was racing to provide aid on Monday after potentially thousands of people were killed by the most powerful cyclone in nearly a century on a small French archipelago off east Africa.
Cyclone Chido struck the islands of Mayotte with 200kmph winds, damaging a hospital, housing and government buildings, but the French interior ministry warned it will be “difficult to account for all the victims” and they could not yet determine a complete death toll.
The number killed may reach a “thousand, even several thousands”, prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told local news channel Mayotte La 1ere, after what forecaster Meteo-France said was the strongest storm to hit the archipelago in more than 90 years.
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau arrived in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, on Monday morning. He told French media it would take “days and days” to establish the true scale of the impact of the cyclone.
The French military has begun rushing medical personnel and emergency workers to the island, airlifting people and supplies from Reunion island – another French overseas territory on the other side of Madagascar.
French authorities said more than 800 more personnel were expected to arrive in the coming days as rescuers comb through the devastation caused by Chido when it hit the densely populated archipelago of around 300,000 people on Saturday.
Mr Bieuville said the island’s poorer slum neighbourhoods, consisting of metal shacks and other informal structures, had been hit particularly badly by the cyclone.
Elsewhere entire neighbourhoods of houses have been flattened, and the electricity supply to the island has largely been knocked out.
The main airport has suffered significant damage, including its airport control tower. It means only military aircraft can fly into the island, further complicating disaster response efforts.
French president Emmanuel Macron said: “My thoughts are with our compatriots in Mayotte, who have gone through the most horrific few hours, and who have, for some, lost everything, lost their lives.”
