Editor-DN
Paris:
Residents in the French region of Mayotte braced for a storm on Saturday that is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain less than a month after a deadly storm ravaged the Indian Ocean island.
Mayotte was placed on a red weather alert from 1900 GMT on Saturday in anticipation of Cyclone Dekalidi passing south of the area.
Authorities called for “extreme vigilance” after Cyclone Chido devastated the area in mid-December.
Matteo France predicted “significant rain and wind conditions”, saying that heavy rain could lead to flooding.
Residents were advised to take shelter and stockpile food and water.
The storm is expected to reach the northeastern coast of Madagascar on Saturday evening, before moving off the coast of southern Muyte on Sunday.
“Nothing is being left to chance,” France’s new overseas territories minister, Manuel Valls, told AFP, citing “heavy and persistent rain” and winds of up to 110 kilometers per hour.
The worst storm to hit France’s poorest department in 90 years caused widespread damage, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 5,600 in December.
“We need to be seriously prepared for the possibility of a typhoon approaching,” Mueto Prefecture said on X.
Prefect Francois-Xavier Bivel, the top official in charge of the Paris region, said Mayotte would be placed on red weather alert from 1900 GMT on Saturday.
“I have decided to bring forward this red alert at 10:00 p.m. to allow everyone to shelter in place, to self-quarantine, to take care of your loved ones, your children, your families. Go,” Bieuville said on television.
Messages in French and two regional languages were broadcast on radio and television to warn the population.
Bieuville told reporters earlier Saturday that the storm was forecast to pass within 110 kilometers (70 miles) of the peninsula’s southern coast.
“We also have a 75-kilometer detection system. So we have something that will hit Mayotte very closely,” he said.
‘very upset’
However, forecasters expect the storm to weaken on Saturday night “to a strong tropical storm stage, before moving off the coast of southern Mayotte during the day on Sunday”.
More than 4,000 personnel, including members of the police and army, have been mobilized, the interior ministry said.
The prefect has requested that mayors reopen accommodation centers such as schools and gymnasiums that sheltered some 15,000 people in December.
He also ordered firefighters and other forces to be deployed in “highly vulnerable” shanty towns in Mamodzo and elsewhere.
The prefect said potential mudslides were a “major risk”.
“Chadu was a dry cyclone, with very little rainfall,” he added.
“This tropical storm is a wet event, we’re going to have a lot of rain.”
Muyote officially has a population of 320,000, but an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 more undocumented residents live in shanty towns that were destroyed by a typhoon in December.
In Mamoudzou, 35-year-old Camelia Petrie said she would seek shelter in her home, which “remained intact during Chedo.”
She told AFP that she would “carry friends and colleagues who lost their homes.”
She added that she was “very concerned about the vulnerable population.”
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
