The eye of Cyclone Belal hit the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean on Monday, January 15, bringing downpours and strong gusts of wind. A few hours earlier, the island had been placed on violet alert, the highest level, which implies a "strict lockdown of the entire population, including emergency and security services," according to local authorities. The island returned to red alert status after midday, allowing emergency workers to move again.

"We're below the cataclysmic situation we could have predicted," said Prefect Jérôme Filippini at a press briefing on Monday. "It's good news for us, but the cyclone hasn't finished with La Réunion yet. We have to hold out until Tuesday morning."

The weather service Météo-France had warned of "devastating" winds and a cyclone "that could make history" on the island of 860,000 inhabitants. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had convened a crisis unit at the Interior Ministry's interministerial crisis management center on Sunday evening. "Be careful, stay at home. The state is mobilized at your side," wrote President Emmanuel Macron in a post on X.

The tropical cyclone intensified on Sunday night, and conditions on the island deteriorated, with heavy, long-lasting rains and a deepening swell. After making landfall, the cyclone altered its trajectory, skirting La Réunion via the east coast.

Beware the eye of the storm

Local authorities predicted destructive peak winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour along the coast and more than 250 kilometers per hour in the higher reaches of the island, very high swells with waves of more than eight meters attacking the coastline, and torrential rainfall – between 200 and 300 millimeters in a few hours – resulting in flooding and high water. Experts also feared river levels not seen for 30 or even 100 years. Réunion Island had not experienced the eye of a cyclone since January 1993, when Cyclone Colina hit.

On Monday morning, tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity, water or network service. The local prefecture confirmed the death of a homeless person in Saint-Gilles, in the west of the island.

Since Sunday evening, authorities and weather forecasters have repeatedly reminded residents to be wary of the "deceptive lull" that happens when the eye of a storm passes over. "After the climax, we must be wary of this sudden calm," warned Sébastien Langlade, the head of La Réunion's regional meteorological center. "This is not the end of the cyclone. Conditions are going to suddenly worsen again with winds in the opposite direction."

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