Like an Atomic Bomb Hit: Century Defining Cyclone Destroys Mayotte

Reports of massive destruction are coming from Mayotte after a 100 year hurricane slammed over the French archipelago Saturday wreaking havoc that one local compared to an atomic explosion with hundreds if not thousands of feared victims. Mayotte is located in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa just west of Madagascar. It is made up of two main islands and has a land area almost double that of Washington, DC.

Cyclone Chido, a category 4 storm ripped into the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend striking northern Madagascar before swiftly developing and pounding Mayotte with gusts exceeding 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather office. Meteo France reported that it was the greatest storm to hit the islands in almost 90 years.

Chido then moved into northern Mozambique where it continued to produce damage but the storm has since diminished. The hurricane, the most powerful to strike the region of little over 300,000 people in at least 90 years and it destroyed schools and hospitals, electricity infrastructure, destroyed communities and damaged the control tower at the airport.

The French health minister has acknowledged the deaths of at least 14 individuals but the actual death toll is likely to be far higher. According to local sources, the number of casualties may be in the hundreds or possibly thousands as per the Associated Press.

According to Bieuville, the shacks and informal communities scattered around Mayotte suffered the most damage. According to France’s interior ministry, many of the approximately 100,000 illegal migrants that reside in Mayotte reside in these neighborhoods.

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The poorest island in the European Union, Mayotte is around 5,000 miles from Paris and has seen unemployment, violence and a worsening migratory issue. Tens of thousands of people from nearby Comoros and Madagascar have migrated to Mayotte in recent decades in search of improved economic conditions and access to the French social system.

Following the disaster, desperate family members turned to social media to look for updates on their loved ones. But Mayotte has been nearly completely shut down from the internet for more than 36 hours as of Monday morning. France and the neighboring French island of Reunion have dispatched hundreds of rescuers, firemen and police to the area.