Madagascar: Cyclone Batsirai loses power, the risk of flooding remains

Published on : 02/06/2022 – 10:46

Cyclone Batsirai, which hit Reunion then Madagascar, lost power but floods are still to be feared due to heavy rains, indicates Sunday, February 6 Météo-Madagascar.

“Batsirai has weakened. At 4 a.m. local (01 a.m. GMT), its center is positioned in the district of Isandra (center). The average wind has dropped to 80 km/h with local gusts of 110 km/h . It is moving west at a rate of 19 km / h”, specify the Malagasy meteorological services.

According to Météo-Madagascar, “localized or generalized floods/floods remain to be feared following the heavy rains” but Batsirai should “go out to sea in the Mozambique Channel at the level of the northern part of Atsimo Andrefana in the afternoon ( Sunday) or next night”.

After pouring torrential rain for two days on the French island of Reunion, Batsirai made landfall around 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Saturday in the Mananjary district, more than 530 km southeast of the capital Antananarivo.

Batsirai made landfall “14 km north of the city of Mananjary, at the stage of an intense tropical cyclone”, with “a wind of 165 km / h and gusts at 235 km / h”, Faly confirmed to AFP. Aritiana Fabien, an official of the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management.

Some 90 minutes after the arrival of the cyclone, the authorities had counted nearly 27,000 people who had left their homes, said Faly Aritiana Fabien, whose services prepared food, medicine and accommodation sites.

A little earlier, the weather service of Madagascar had warned that “significant and widespread damage” was to be feared.

Protect yourself with the means at hand

The inhabitants have prepared with the means at their disposal on the island, one of the poorest countries in the world, already hit by a deadly tropical storm in January, Ana, and swept since Friday by the wind and continuous rain.

Ana, which also affected Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, left a hundred dead – including nearly sixty in Madagascar – and tens of thousands of victims.

In the coastal town of Vatomandry (in the east of the country), a few hours before Batsirai’s arrival, more than 200 people had crowded into a room in a concrete building belonging to the Chinese for protection, families sleeping on mats or mattresses.

A local official, Thierry Louison Leaby, complained about the lack of drinking water, the supply having been cut before the storm. “People are cooking with dirty water,” he said, fearing an outbreak of diarrhea. “The government must absolutely help us. We have not been provided with anything.”

Outside, dishes and plastic cups collected rainwater pouring from corrugated iron roofs, often reinforced with heavy sandbags or jerry cans.

Some have put aside supplies. “We have been stocking up for a week, rice but also cereals because with the power cuts we can no longer keep meat or fish”, explained Odette Nirina, 65, hotelier in this seaside town. “I also stocked up on coal. We are used to cyclones here.”

Advance humanitarian aid

The impact of Cyclone Batsirai in Madagascar is expected to be “considerable”, including in areas still recovering from Storm Ana, a spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) warned on Friday. UN, Jens Laerke.

The director of the World Food Program (WFP) for Madagascar, Pasqualina Di Sirio, said she anticipated “a major crisis” on the Big Island, where the cyclone could affect more than 600,000 people, including 150,000 displaced. “We are very nervous,” she told reporters by videoconference.

Search and rescue teams have been placed on alert, stocks of supplies have been prepared and planes are ready to intervene in support of the humanitarian response.

Around 4.4 million people in total are at risk in one way or another, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), including “teams and partners” on place “are on alert and deployed in the communities”.

Every year during the hurricane season (from November to April), about ten storms or cyclones cross the south-west of the Indian Ocean, from east to west.

With AFP