The islands of Comoros, Madagascar and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean were bracing for Cyclone Chido on Friday as the intense tropical storm whirred its way toward Africa’s east coast.
Comoros, a small archipelago, ordered schools to close as authorities expected Chido to hit the islands early Saturday. Before then, the cyclone was due to pass the northern tip of Madagascar. The French territory of Mayotte, south of Comoros, is also in its path and the French National Weather Service put Mayotte on red alert starting Friday night, its highest alert level.
Mozambique on the African mainland also issued a red alert for the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula and said that more than 2 million people could be affected when Chido makes landfall on the continent, which is expected early Sunday. The Mozambique National Meteorological Institute said that it was forecasting winds of 200 kph (124 mph).
“We believe that we can initially start working with an estimate of around 2.5 million people in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula who may be affected and will need to be rescued,” Ana Cristina, the director of the National Emergency Operations Center, was quoted as saying by local media.
Even landlocked Zimbabwe was expecting to be impacted by Chido, officials said.
In Madagascar, alerts were sent to cellphones and broadcast on radio from Thursday warning people to take precautions, while some evacuations were taking place in the northern region of Diana, where the cyclone’s impact is expected to be worst. Authorities issued an imminent danger warning for people in that area and said that nearly 20,000 people could be affected.
Madagascar authorities have been delivering food and emergency equipment like water pumps, generators and chainsaws to the region since Tuesday.
The French government is sending about 110 people to Mayotte to help with eventual damage, including emergency workers from the mainland and firefighters from nearby Reunion, and three tons of emergency equipment, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry in Paris.
The help includes search dogs and specialists in rescuing people from rubble, the head of Mayotte’s fire and rescue service Col. Frédéric Leguillier told the local public broadcaster.
December through to March is considered the region’s cyclone season and it has been battered by a series of strong ones from the Indian Ocean in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries last year.
Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change.
Crisis24, a risk management company, said that Cyclone Chido could cause damaging flooding and landslides, while stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne cholera disease — as happened in the aftermath of Idai — as well as dengue fever and malaria.
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