After Chido, it is Dikeledi, a storm expected to be very rainy, to threaten Mayotte. The archipelago was put on orange cyclone alert on Saturday, announced the prefecture of this French department in the Indian Ocean. And the move to the red alert is likely, less than a month later the passage of Chido that devastated landscapes and houses.
The orange level immediately implies “the cessation of the circulation of barges” (local ferries), the prefecture clarified on X (ex-Twitter), warning against “a significant deterioration in weather conditions” from Saturday evening. This vigilance is now accompanied by a yellow heavy rain vigilance, indicates the latest Météo-France bulletin, which warns “dangerous phenomena of exceptional intensity”.
“We have to seriously prepare for the possibility that the cyclone passes as close as possible and that the red alert is activated,” warned the prefecture of this overseas department of 320,000 inhabitants.
The Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville specified that the cyclone should, according to the forecasts, pass 110 km from the southern coasts of the archipelago. “We also have systems that tell us 75 km”he emphasized during a press conference in Mamoudzou on Saturday morning. “We’ll probably be on red alert tonight”he warned.
However, forecasters anticipate a weakening of the cyclone during the night from Saturday to Sunday “at the stage of a strong tropical storm, before circulating outside the south of Mayotte during the day of Sunday”.
At 9:46 a.m. local time (7:46 a.m. in Paris) on Saturday, Dikeledi was less than 700 km east of Mayotte and about 200 km from the Malagasy coast, according to Météo-France.
Wet event
Each mudslides constitute “significant risks”stressed the prefect. “Chido was a dry cyclone, we had little rain. This tropical storm is a wet event, we will have a lot of rain”what you do “in land already weakened (…) by Chido, it risks leading to events of this nature. »
In its latest bulletin, Météo-France predicts “significant rain and wind deterioration”it evokes “Very heavy rain that could cause flooding”. Cumulative amounts of 100 to 150 mm of rain are expected in just 6 hours on Sunday.
The prefect asked the mayors to reopen the accommodation centers (schools, municipal structures, gymnasiums, etc.) that had been able to accommodate a few. “15,000 people” during the previous cyclonic episode. He also asked “Position of forces, especially firefighters” in “extremely fragile slum areas in Mamoudzou, in Koungou (north coast of Grande-Terre, ND), in Petite-Terre in La Vigie”.
Chido is always present everywhere
The entry into force of this orange alert comes less than a month after the passage of Cyclone Chido, the most devastating to hit the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean in 90 years. This caused colossal damage in the poorest department of France. The passage of this intense tropical cyclone left at least 39 dead and more than 5,600 injured, destroying many precarious and permanent houses in the 101st French department and damaging a lot of infrastructure such as the hospital.
In the Mahoran capital, Camelia Petre, 35, explains to AFP that she will initially be sheltered in her house that “held during Chido” and this inhabitant “will house friends and colleagues who have lost their homes”. But she is “concerned about the precarious population” to whom she tries to “transmit as much information as possible”.
“The hills are weakened”, “the improvised dwellings have been rebuilt, but in an even more fragile way, so the wind, which risks taking the materials and turning them into projects, and the rain and mud that will destroy it is a real danger.!, worries this urban planning professional.
In fact, the reconstruction should take 2 to 3 years, according to the former Overseas Minister, François-Noël Buffet, in charge at the time of Chido.
Administrative headache
This new episode should further complicate the task, as well as the compensation and insurance procedures, while they are still ongoing for Chido. “We are still drowning in the crisis management of the first cyclone”says David Georgette, whose businesses are in a “expert broom” sent by insurance companies to assess damages. “In a professional capacity, we prepared” at Dikeledi Pass, “We will make sure we release the teams in time to get them home”Explain this trader from Mamoudzou.
Cyclones usually develop in the Indian Ocean from November to March, but this year the surface water is close to 30 ° C in the area, which provides more energy for storms, a global warming phenomenon also observed this fall in the North Atlantic and the Pacific.
