Families scramble to help after deadly cyclone rips through French territory of Mayotte off Africa

MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — Relatives of families struggling after Cyclone Chido ripped through the French island territory of Mayotte expressed helplessness Wednesday, a day before France’s president and another 180 tons of aid were expected to arrive.

Some survivors and aid groups have described hasty burials, the stench of bodies and the devastation of precarious informal settlements whose population of migrants makes it even more challenging to determine the number of dead.

“A catastrophe of exceptional intensity,” French authorities said in an update Wednesday. “The island is devastated.” It noted 31 confirmed deaths but said the Muslim practice of burial within 24 hours could mean the real toll is quite different.

Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean off Africa’s east coast, is France’s poorest territory and a magnet for migrants hoping to reach Europe. Already, France's interior minister this week has proposed cracking down.

The cyclone on Saturday was the deadliest storm to strike the territory in nearly a century. It devastated entire neighborhoods on the collection of islands with winds that exceeded 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service. Many people had ignored cyclone warnings, thinking the storm would not be so extreme.

Now residents pick their way across a landscape in search of food as telecommunications remain tenuous and even sturdily built structures including health centers have been damaged.

Driving the streets of Mayotte, AP reporters saw destroyed houses, felled trees and people lining up for water. Dozens of French military personnel set up a makeshift camp at the airport.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Tuesday said more than 1,500 people were injured, including more than 200 critically, but authorities fear hundreds and possibly thousands of people have died. Authorities said about 100,000 lived in a “precarious situation.”

On the French island of Reunion about a three-hour flight away, loved ones were coming together to donate aid for survivors. Some said their families in Mayotte had no food or water and roofs were blown off houses. It had taken days to make contact with some.

“It is difficult because I feel helpless,” said Khayra Djoumoi Thany, 19.

Anrafa Parassouramin also has family in Mayotte. “We are also afraid of disease outbreaks, because people are drinking water from wherever they can get it, and it’s not necessarily potable water,” she said.

Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq has raised concerns about the risk of a cholera epidemic on the archipelago which earlier this year had an outbreak of a highly drug-resistant strain of the disease.

French authorities said the distribution of 23 tons of water began Wednesday.

The French minister for overseas matters, François-Noël Buffet, told French radio Europe 1 that aid brought by plane has started being allocated to locations across Mayotte.

The minister said the water supply system was “working at 50%” and presented a risk of “poor quality.” Electricity had partially resumed.

Mayotte’s hospital was badly damaged. A field hospital should be operational by early next week, Buffet said.

A Navy ship was due to arrive in Mayotte on Thursday with 180 tons of aid and equipment, according to the French military. But the main airport could not accept commercial flights because of damage. The road network was also widely damaged.

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Mayotte on Thursday and visit a hospital and a destroyed neighborhood, his office said. “Our compatriots are living through the worst just a few thousand kilometers away,” Macron said in a statement.

Some residents of Mayotte have long criticized the French government of neglect.

On Tuesday evening, a program on public broadcaster France 2 raised 5 million euros ($5.24 million) in aid for Mayotte through the Foundation of France charity, the channel said.

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Corbet reported from Paris.