Cyclone In Madagascar 'Destroys 95% Of City', Kills 10, Displaces Nearly 50,000

At least 10 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 displaced after Cyclone Batsirai brought strong winds and rain to Madagascar on Saturday evening. Batsirai - the second major storm in two weeks - made landfall on the east coast, with gusts of 235km/h (146mph) and high waves hitting coastal areas.

The cyclone later weakened but not before wreaking havoc in the poor Indian Ocean island nation which is still reeling from a deadly tropical storm earlier this year. Parts of the country were lashed with heavy rains and wind before the cyclone made landfall in Mananjary.

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Thousands displaced

Around 48,000 people have been displaced, according to the disaster management agency, although the UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that as many as 1,50,000 people could be forced to leave their homes.

Whole villages are reported to be almost completely destroyed. ¡°Mananjary is completely destroyed, no matter where you go everything is destroyed,¡± one resident named Faby told the AFP news agency.

Another man, Fana, was certain "almost 95 percent of the city has been destroyed". Inland in Antsirabe, 365 km northwest of Mananjary, the storm uprooted large trees in the town's public park.

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The destruction

Electricity had not been available in Mananjary for two days and the water supply had been disrupted, according to local media. One resident told Reuters that even schools and churches due to be used as evacuation centres had had their roofs torn off. In other places, the destruction was nearly total.

Environment Minister Vahinala Raharinirina told the BBC that many villages were nearly completely gone, with some being swept away by the storm. In the east coast city of Mahanoro, the rising sea eroded a sandy hill which was part of a graveyard.

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Marie Viviane Rasoanandrasana, a 54-year-old widow, sat and watched as the bodies of her husband, father-in-law and daughter were exposed. "We've already had damages at home because of the cyclone. Now this," she told AFP news agency.

Climate change behind extreme weather events

Experts say that extreme weather events like cyclones will become more frequent because of climate change.

Madagascar was already reeling from Tropical Storm Ana, which killed 55 people when it hit the Indian Ocean island nation last month.

Madagascar is also just recovering from the effects of a drought, which was also blamed on global warming. The environment minister told the BBC that the country had submitted a plan to the COP26 climate conference, which showed it needed $1bn (?740m) a year to adapt to the effects of climate change.