CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The French territory of Mayotte was battered by a brand new tropical storm Sunday, simply weeks after the worst cyclone to hit the islands in almost a century laid waste to total neighborhoods and villages and left authorities going through an enormous restoration effort.
Mayotte issued a pink alert, and folks have been ordered to remain of their houses or discover a stable shelter and retailer meals and water as Tropical Storm Dikeledi introduced heavy rains and robust winds to as soon as once more pound France’s poorest territory. Some areas have been experiencing flooding.
Mayotte, an archipelago within the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, had solely simply begun the method of rebuilding after the devastation of Cyclone Chido final month, which killed not less than 39 folks, left greater than 200 nonetheless lacking and injured greater than 5,000 when it struck Dec. 14.
Three folks died in close by Madagascar after Dikeledi made landfall there as a cyclone Saturday, the nation’s Nationwide Workplace for Danger and Catastrophe Administration stated. Elements of northern Madagascar have been additionally positioned below pink alert.
Dikeledi had weakened to a tropical storm by the point it reached Mayotte on Sunday, French meteorological service Meteo-France stated. The middle of the storm would move about 62 miles south of Mayotte, Meteo stated. Chido had hit Mayotte head-on.
However Meteo-France warned that Dikeledi might strengthen right into a cyclone once more, whereas authorities in Mayotte stated there was a excessive hazard of flooding and landslides throughout the islands and issued the pink alert on Saturday evening. That alert would stay in place for Sunday, and civilians have been forbidden from being outdoors till the alert was lifted, stated the Mayotte Prefecture, the French authorities division that runs the territory.
“The danger to the population persists,” the prefecture wrote on its official Fb web page.
It stated the climate would turn out to be violent once more later Sunday.
Mayotte was additionally once more opening cyclone shelters at faculties and group facilities for these in want, the prefecture stated. The worldwide airport, which was closely broken by Chido, was closed once more till additional discover.
Officers stated they have been taking no probabilities after the devastation of Chido, which prompted an offended response by Mayotte residents who vented their frustration at French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited days after the catastrophe.
