At least ten people died and nearly 50,000 were displaced in Madagascar after Cyclone Batsirai struck overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
Batsirai weakened overnight, having partly ravaged the island, one of the world’s poorest countries, already hit by a deadly tropical storm in January, Ana, and swept since Friday by wind and a continuous rain.
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 weren’t given anything.”
Gusts at 235 km/h
Batsirai made landfall on Saturday evening in the form of an “intense tropical cyclone”, with winds of 165 km / h, according to Faly Aritiana Fabien, of the National Office of Risk Management.
On Sunday, the cyclone had weakened significantly, with winds averaging 80 km / h and gusts at 110 km / h – significantly less than the peaks of 235 km / h recorded on Saturday evening, according to Météo-Madagascar.
The inhabitants had prepared to cope with the means at their disposal, taking refuge in permanent buildings or ballasting their roofs with sandbags.
Bodies unearthed from a cemetery
In the city of Mahanoro (east), overlooking the sea, Marie Viviane Rasoanandrasana, sitting on the ground, lamented Sunday the damage caused by the cyclone in the municipal cemetery where her husband, her father-in-law and her daughter rest. The waves swept away part of the cemetery, digging up several bodies, including those of his family.
Each 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, often claiming victims and causing significant damage, in Madagascar and somewhere else.
In 2018, the country had already suffered two deadly storms in a row: Cyclone Ava killed 51 people in January, and his friend Eliakim killed 20 two months later. And in 2017, Cyclone Enawo killed at least 78 people.
Global warming is already causing more intense tropical storms and flooding, the atmosphere being more humid and the rainy season disrupted – southern Madagascar has so far suffered the worst drought in several decades.
“Africans are paying the price” for global warming
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday that the continent was experiencing “the worst consequences of phenomena associated with global warming, such as droughts, floods and cyclones. “.
“Although not responsible for climate change, it is Africans who are the first to be affected and are paying the price,” he added.