Madagascar is again preparing to face an intense tropical cyclone, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, December 21. A year after cyclone Batsirai which hit the eastern coast, killing more than 120 people and 150,000 victims, Freddy, that’s his name, also promises to be very violent.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
The weather forecast predicts gusts of 250 km/h at the time of impact, torrential rains and waves of more than ten meters. Other important information, the cyclone could hit the same place or almost as Batsirai, in the coastal town of Mananjary. On the east coast, the population is preparing. Humanitarian associations and the authorities are also on the alert.
Since Sunday, local radio stations on the east coast between Mahanoro and Manakara have been broadcasting alert messages in different dialects on a loop, to prepare the population for the arrival of the cyclone: a reminder of the basic rules to encourage the population to stocks of water and food, to keep his precious documents in a safe place, and of course to get to safety during Freddy’s visit.
Effervescence also on the side of the NGOs who manage the logistics of their teams on site, and those on the way to reach the various strategic places.
” Since the passage of Batsirai last year, we have teams that are there. And with the forecasts that we have had for a week on the trajectory of the cyclone, the entire humanitarian and support community in the country has been able to deploy and preposition itself in future intervention areas and also carry out cyclone anticipation says Charlotte Berthier, general coordinator for Doctors of the World in Madagascar.
” We, what we decided this year, is obviously to leave our team present in the city of Mananajary which will be hit by the cyclone, but also to position a team in a rural area, in Antsenavolo, since the concern that What we had last year was that it took us several days to gain access to the affected populations, in particular because the roads were completely cut off. It’s also true that we got caught up in all the needs there were in urban areas. »
For the time being, nine of the coastal and central regions of the country have already been placed on alert, pending the expected impact in the middle of the evening. Sea trips are not recommended since Monday.
?#FREDDY intensified to very intense tropical cyclone stage. The teams #Red Cross in the region stand ready to intervene in support of the authorities. Stockpiles of humanitarian materials and trained personnel have been identified near areas of potential impact. pic.twitter.com/DaFBOABxJt
— PIROI – French Red Cross (@PIROI_FRC) February 19, 2023
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