Tropical cyclone Freddy, slightly weakened but carried by extreme winds, is rapidly advancing towards Madagascar, where it is expected to hit the east coast on the evening of Tuesday, February 21. Freddy, who was at midday 500 kilometers from the large island in the Indian Ocean, is expected there with "devastating winds" and "a very dangerous sea state", warned Météo-France, which fears destruction within a radius of 100 kilometres. More than 2.3 million Malagasy (out of a population of 28 million) could be affected by this cyclone, according to the World Food Programme.
Freddy must touch the island north of Mananjary (East), a coastal town of 25,000 inhabitants already largely destroyed last year by cyclone Batsirai, responsible for the death of more than 130 inhabitants, in this country which is among the poorest. of the planet. In Mananjary, sandbags have been placed on most houses to weight the roofs and all-terrain vehicles roam the streets, equipped with loudspeakers recalling the safety instructions, according to residents reached by telephone. Mothers, their little ones in hand, have started to go to the schools requisitioned to serve as emergency shelters.
No injuries in Reunion
In the capital Antananarivo, more than 500 kilometers from the expected impact zone, the airport remained open on Tuesday morning but flights to the east coast were canceled, Agence France-Presse found.
Freddy passed overnight from Monday to Tuesday off Reunion, which "escaped the most degraded conditions associated with the eye" of the cyclone, which remained 190 kilometers from the north of the French island, according to meteorologists. The prefecture lifted the hurricane alert in the early morning and the airport, closed since Monday afternoon, was to reopen in the morning. The island was hit by strong winds and the sea there became dangerous with waves reaching 8 meters high, but "no deaths or injuries are to be deplored", according to the prefecture, which has yet to draw up the material balance sheet . The bad weather caused power cuts that still affected 9,000 homes on Tuesday morning and led to the shutdown of pumping stations, depriving 500 homes of drinking water.
The cyclone had previously swept through Mauritius on Monday, remaining 120 kilometers north of the coast but still causing gusts on the archipelago, where the airport and shops, banks and gas stations were closed. After crossing Madagascar, Freddy is expected to exit through the Mozambique Channel and hit Mozambique on Friday as a severe tropical storm with winds reaching 120 km/h and heavy rains, according to forecasts.
