Batsirai, A Cyclone That Devastated Madagascar, killed Ten People

A storm has killed at least ten people in southeastern Madagascar, the second in less than two weeks to strike the Indian Ocean island.

Nosy Varika, on the east coast, was one of the worst-affected towns, with about 95 percent of structures demolished “as if we had just been attacked” and floodwaters cutting off access, according to an official.

Late on Saturday, February 5, Cyclone Batsirai surged inland, slamming onto the eastern shoreline with torrential rain and 165 kph winds (100 mph).

The storm’s impact added to the devastation caused by Cyclone Ana, which devastated the island, which has a population of roughly 30 million people, two weeks ago, killing 55 people and displacing 130,000 people.

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In a report issued late Sunday, Madagascar’s disaster and risk management administration stated that ten persons had died. Some people perished after their house fell in the town of Ambalavao, around 460 kilometers south of Antananarivo, according to state media.

“We witnessed nothing but desolation: uprooted trees, fallen electric poles, roofs ripped off by the wind, and the city entirely submerged,” Nirina Rahaingosoa, a resident of Fianarantsoa, 420 kilometers south of Antananarivo, told Reuters by phone.

Electricity was knocked off in the town when gusts of wind downed poles all night and into Sunday morning, he added.

Flooding has closed off some regions of Madagascar’s south-east from the surrounding territories, according to Willy Raharijaona, technical adviser to the vice-president of the Senate.

“It feels like we’ve been bombed.” “Nearly 95 percent of Nosy Varika has been devastated,” he claimed. “The wind ripped the roofs off the substantial houses. The majority of the wooden cottages have been demolished.”

On the 22nd of January, Cyclone Ana hit the Indian Ocean island nation, killing at least 55 people due to landslides and destroyed buildings, as well as creating significant flooding.