The cyclone killed at least ten people and displaced 43,000 according to a BNGRC report. In Mahanoro, life has already slowly resumed its course.
With our special correspondent in Mahanoro, Laura Verneau
Blazing sun, dry ground, hard to believe that a town could have been devastated by the cyclone less than 200 km away. In the street, the inhabitants walk nonchalantly, from the local eatery to the gas station. Herilaza, a rickshaw driver, was still scared.
” I was very scared during the night, but in fact I have known storms worse than that. In our yard, a stalk of lychee and a stalk of avocado were torn away by the wind. »
Fence lying, trees slumped on the road, large black pond: these are the only remains of the passage of Batsirai. No human damage to deplore. 2,400 people were spread over 13 accommodation sites in anticipation of the cyclone. For Francky, a gas station attendant, it is because the population has been alerted. He watched national television.
“ I was scared but I think we were warned, everyone was well prepared, and suddenly there is little damage in the city, at least less than during previous cyclones. »
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Nearly 50,000 people had to leave their homes. If Mahanoro was well prepared, as planned on the trajectory of Batsirai, this was not the case for other localities which were caught off guard.
At least ten people died when Cyclone Batsirai struck overnight from Saturday to Sunday. A still provisional assessment because the cyclone, even if it weakens while crossing the Big Island, will continue to cause floods in the east, but also in the west of Madagascar, as explained by Colonel Faly, from Malagasy Office for Risk and Disaster Management.
” The heavy rains that accompanied this cyclone are likely in the days to come to continue to swell the beds of the rivers because the cyclone left from the side of the Highlands, it watered the watersheds, thus involving risks of further major floods. rivers that flow not only from the eastern side of the country but also from the western side. there is also the watershed from the highlands which will have been watered by the rest of the cyclone and as it goes west it will therefore have swollen the Fiherenana river which is likely to cause flooding downstream on the side of Tulear and its surroundings. »