Powerful winds sowed death and destruction. In the aftermath of tropical cyclone Chido, which struck Mayotte on Saturday, December 14, the archipelago's residents were gradually coming to grips with the scale of the disaster, for which the very provisional death toll – at least 14 dead and almost 250 injured recorded on Sunday evening – reveals nothing of the real magnitude. How many victims are buried in piles of sheet metal, household appliances and furniture debris? How many people disappeared in the shantytowns devastated by gusts of wind over 200 km/h? The French territory in the Indian Ocean had not seen a cyclone of such violence for at least 90 years.

According to the local prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, the official count, based on hospital data, is only partial. "This result is not plausible when you see the images of the shanty towns and the violence of this event," he explained on Mayotte 1^re TV news program on Sunday evening. "I can't imagine that we won't have, unfortunately, more victims," adding, solemnly: "I think the final toll is much heavier. Probably several hundred, maybe a thousand, even a few thousand." It will be difficult to get an official count, since, he pointed out, "Muslim tradition is to bury people within 24 hours." In the poorest neighborhoods, where many undocumented families live, death is not necessarily accompanied by administrative formalities with the registry office. In Mayotte, France's poorest department, around a third of the 32,000 residents live in precarious housing.

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