A cyclone which could “mark the history of the island” of Reunion. According to Météo-France, the gusts of wind expected in this French department of the Indian Ocean, this Monday, January 15, could be “devastating”. Tropical Cyclone Belal intensified overnight from Sunday to Monday, and conditions on the island deteriorated, with heavy, lasting rains already flooding some roads and deepening swells.
Cyclonic Violet Alert Triggered
The prefect of Réunion, Jérôme Filippini, triggered, this Monday at 6:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. in Paris), the violet cyclone alert, the highest level, synonymous with “imminent danger”. This involves strict confinement until further notice, including emergency and security services which can no longer circulate.
“We’re going to get into the hard part […], in the most active and potentially most dangerous phase of this cyclonic episode. It is now that the difficult things begin,” warned the prefect of Reunion Island during a press videoconference.
Reason for relative relief, “Belal should not however reach the stage of intense tropical cyclone”, according to the meteorological services, which compare its impact to that of cyclone Firinga in 1989. Reunion has no longer been hit by an intense cyclone for ten years and the passage of Bejisa in the first days of 2014.
However, authorities expect wind gusts of up to 250 km/h on the heights of the island. But according to Météo-France’s interregional director for the Indian Ocean, Céline Jauffret, the rest of the island will not be spared: “We expect a sudden strengthening” of the winds “in the coming hours”: already clocked at 140 km/h in Petite-France (west), the gusts could reach, “at the height of the event, […] 200 km/h on the coast,” she said.
And watch out for misleading signs, the meteorologist reiterated: “as the eye passes, there will be periods of calm. They are temporary and do not mean that the cyclone has left. All day long, we will have sudden changes in wind.
Risks of flooding and submersion
According to Météo-France, waves of eight meters on average are expected, with maximum waves of 12 to 15 meters. The entire coastline has also been placed on red alert for waves and the risk of submersion.
The authorities are also “concerned by all the watercourses”, for which a flood peak is expected this Monday at the end of the morning, according to the prefect.
“Be careful, stay at home. The State is mobilized at your side,” wrote President Emmanuel Macron in a message posted on X on Sunday. The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, reacted on the same social network: “My thoughts are with the inhabitants of Reunion Island who are facing a terrible cyclone. Thank you to all our public officials on deck to protect our fellow citizens.”
At this stage, the impact of the meteorological phenomenon on the networks “is limited”, noted the prefect, mentioning 3,500 customers without electricity, 1,600 people deprived of running water and 7,000 of landlines.
Populations sheltered
Six living centers have been set up for patients requiring equipment for their care, in addition to the 142 accommodation centers deployed across the territory to accommodate people in precarious circumstances or those living on the banks of ravines or waterways, according to the authorities. However, these centers have not been used much for the moment: some 600 people have been admitted there.
“We carried out evacuations until the last possible moment,” underlined the prefect, specifying that “nearly 100 people” had been sheltered during final operations carried out at the end of the evening and during the night. , before strict confinement.
Roland-Garros international airport, in the town of Sainte-Marie (in the north), closed this Sunday, January 14 in the afternoon, and all public transport networks stopped in the early evening.