Port city in ruins as storm rips through Madagascar and on towards Mozambique

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Port city in ruins as storm rips through Madagascar and on towards Mozambique

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At least 35 people have died after a powerful cyclone hit Madagascar, according to disaster authorities on the Indian Ocean island.

Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos”, reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.

Neighborhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs torn off.

At least 250,000 people are “affected or displaced”, Environment Minister Max Fontaine Andonirina told BBC Newsday on Thursday.

Major challenges include “disruptions to food supply chains, fuel transportation, medical access, as most major roads are cut,” he added.

One resident described to the BBC how she and her family cowered indoors as wind and rain pounded their home for six hours straight, before windows shattered and water poured in.

“We’re trying to do our best… It’s dangerous and I don’t know if there will be enough people to help us, even if the authorities try,” the woman, who gives her name as Denise, told BBC Newsday.

“It’s real and it’s worse” than what we see in videos shared online, she added.

Gezani is the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year. It comes 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia killed 14 people and displaced more than 31,000, according to the UN humanitarian office.

The island’s leaders are now asking for international aid.

“What happened is a disaster, almost 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who took power in October, told AFP.

“The current situation is beyond Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.

The cyclone’s impact was likely one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to cyclone forecaster CMRS on the French island of Reunion, AFP reports.

The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said many people were killed in the collapsing houses. Cyclone Gezani hit Toamasina – the country’s second largest city – with winds reaching 250 km/hour (155 mph).

“It’s total chaos, 90% of the roofs of the houses have been torn off, in whole or in part,” Rija Randrianarisoa, head of disaster management at the aid agency Action Against Hunger, told AFP.

Everyone recognizes that a huge amount of work remains to be done.

“It will take many, many years” to restore infrastructure and recover, Environment Minister Andonirina told the BBC, adding that parts of Madagascar ravaged by cyclones over the past three years “still haven’t been rebuilt like before.”

A girl carries a baby as she wades in the water. — Many areas of Toamasina have been devastated [Reuters]

Uprooted trees at the side of a road. — Trees were uprooted and some neighborhoods were left without electricity [Reuters]

An aerial view of the town of Toamasina, on the east coast of Madagascar. Three boats are stranded on a sandy shore at the edge of a wide bay. Machinery and equipment are installed on the ships, with a tug tilted at an angle on the beach. A person walks nearby and industrial buildings and cranes are visible in the distance across the water. — Some boats remained stranded after the storm [AFP via Getty Images]

The cyclone season in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar normally lasts from November to April and experiences around a dozen storms each year, reports AFP.

Madagascar’s disaster management office evacuated dozens of injured people and hundreds of residents from a neighborhood around Toamasina, home to 400,000 people.

Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos when the cyclone made landfall. “I have never experienced such strong winds… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being shaken violently,” Harimanga Ranaivo told the Reuters news agency.

Before the cyclone arrived, authorities closed schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.

Later Wednesday, its status was downgraded from cyclone to tropical storm.

As Gezani moves away from Madagascar and up the Mozambique Channel, the National Meteorological Institute of Mozambique (INAM) says it does not expect it to make landfall, but that some inland areas could suffer heavy rain and strong winds.

Mozambique is still reeling from months of extreme weather that has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Aid agencies fear an already desperate situation will worsen, with Oxfam warning Gezani risks piling “disaster upon disaster”.