Winds lash Madagascar’s coast as Cyclone Freddy makes landfall

No less than one particular person has died after a tropical cyclone battered Madagascar’s east coast, with heavy rain and highly effective winds tearing roofs off homes and triggering a storm surge.

Cyclone Freddy made landfall on Tuesday, weeks after one other tropical storm killed 33 and left hundreds with out shelter.

Faculties have been shut and site visitors has been suspended.

Earlier, Freddy precipitated some injury in Mauritius, flooding beachside motels.

The Indian Ocean island nation is especially susceptible to cyclones. It’s hit by a median of 1.5 cyclones yearly, the best fee in Africa, in line with the United Nations Workplace for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The cyclone barely weakened as soon as it made landfall on Madagascar, located off the south-east coast of Africa, with wind gusts exceeding 130km/h (81mph). The nation’s meteorological service warned that torrential rains would proceed alongside its path.

“The ocean stays very tough… and a major threat of coastal flooding will proceed in a single day,” it stated.

A 27-year-old man drowned close to the port of Mahanoro earlier than the storm made landfall, officers stated.

Officers additionally stated 7,000 folks had been pre-emptively evacuated from the coastal area instantly in Freddy’s path, and warnings waves may attain over 8m (26ft) had been issued by the Worldwide Federation of Pink Cross.

Some folks used sandbags to crush their roofs as a precaution.

“All of the doorways and home windows began shaking,” stated Tahina, a resident of Mananjary, a coastal city of round 25,000 folks 30km from the place the cyclone first made landfall.

She had fled her residence along with her dad and mom and three kids to shelter in her husband’s workplace.

“Subsequent to us, at the very least 5 homes have misplaced their roofs,” Tahina instructed AFP information company.

Pascal Salle sobbed as he surveyed the injury attributable to Freddy – which had ripped a window off of his residence and turned his backyard right into a “sandy area”.

“It is a repeat efficiency. I can not take this yearly, it is not potential. Batsirai and Emnati in 2022, Freddy in 2023… Who’s to say that in 15 days one other one will not fall on us?” he stated.

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Final month the highly effective storm Cheneso smashed into north-eastern Madagascar bringing in heavy winds and triggering downpours that precipitated intensive flooding, and killing at the very least 33 folks and forcing tens of hundreds of individuals from their properties.

Mananjary continues to be recovering from devastation attributable to final yr’s Cyclone Batsirai, which killed greater than 130 folks throughout Madagascar.

Cyclone Freddy is forecast to cross the ocean from Madagascar and make landfall in Mozambique, earlier than doubtlessly transferring additional inland to hit Zimbabwe, UN officers say.