Cyclone Chido inflicted "catastrophic" damage on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Saturday, according to its prefect François-Xavier Bieuville, placing the island on red alert.
The alert level was lowered from violet, the highest, to red, but "the cyclone is not over," stressed Bieuville in a press release, calling on the population to remain "confined" and "united" in "this ordeal." "Many of us have lost everything" following the passage of Chido, "the most violent and destructive", according to the prefect, that the French Indian Ocean archipelago has seen in 90 years.
"The damage already appears to be extensive," wrote Bruno Retailleau, the outgoing interior minister, on X on Saturday. "State and local emergency services are fully mobilized. Already, 110 civil security personnel and firefighters have been dispatched and are on site. A second dispatch will take place tomorrow with a further 140 troops. I ask the population to follow the instructions of the local authorities," he said.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the damage assessment phase for critical infrastructures (hospital, airport, prefecture) has begun, and "public order measures to prevent looting" have been taken. The Ministry declared that "no human or material toll can be established" yet and specified that in the event of a red alert, the population is confined.
Weather authority Météo France recorded winds of at least 226 kilometers per hour at Pamandzi airport. But conditions were expected to calm later on Saturday as the cyclone moved away.
The eye of the cyclone swept over northern Mayotte early in the morning, and was located around 10:45 am Paris time (12:45 pm local time), to the west of the Indian Ocean archipelago, according to satellite images. It was heading towards the coast of Mozambique on the African continent, leaving behind a trail of winds and rain that was still intense.
On the ground, more than 15,000 homes were without electricity, Environment Minister Agnes-Pannier-Runacher posted on X. "Even emergency responders are locked down. There's no mobile phone service and we can't reach people on the island," the head of Mayotte's firefighters' union, Abdoul Karim Ahmed Allaoui, told the French BFM news channel. "Even buildings built to earthquake standards haven't held up. The emergency services command centre has been evacuated and is functioning at partial capacity," he added.
Road traffic was also banned and the archipelago's main airport, Dzaoudzi, was closed.
France's new Prime Minister François Bayrou said on X that he was keeping himself "informed hour by hour" and the president assured, on the same network, that he was "closely" following the situation. "Mahorais, the whole country is at your side," declared Emmanuel Macron in his post. "The situation is urgent. We will be there today and tomorrow," he added, announcing the arrival of "reinforcements" on Saturday and Sunday.