Forty-eight hours after cyclone Emnati, more than 51,000 victims and 45,000 displaced people have been counted by the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management, which held a press conference on Thursday, February 24, in the capital, Antananarivo. . For the time being, no death has been recorded, specifies the institution.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laetitia Bezain
A little over 12,000 housing units and nearly 2,000 schools damaged, destroyed or flooded, trees and electric poles fallen, problems of access to drinking water, this is what the National Office lists. risk and disaster management in the southeastern regions of the island, the entry area of the cyclone.
“You always have to be careful”
General Elack Andriakaja, director general of this institution, evokes a hurricane season never before recorded in the archives: “ This time, it’s really exceptional. In one month, already four cyclones. A lot of fields like rice fields, corn fields, cassava fields are really destroyed. But, now, we are going to get into the sectoral response, including giving seeds to farmers. Given the current climate change, there are always messages to send to the population, we must always be careful “.
First aid operations are continuing with, in particular, the distribution of food, medicine and hygiene kits. But many districts in the southeast, such as Midongy Atsimo, Vondrozo, or Farafangana, are isolated from the rest of the island due to rising waters.
The BNGRC has just been equipped with a heavy-lift helicopter to transport basic necessities to these areas. Traffic is blocked on many national roads. About fifteen cut points were noted by the Ministry of Public Works. Overflights are planned for this weekend to have a more precise assessment of the cumulative damage of the four storms and cyclones.
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