MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey Cyclone Chido’s destruction and was immediately confronted with a firsthand account of devastation across the French territory.
“Mayotte is demolished,” Assane Haloi, a security guard, told Macron after he was taken off the plane.
Macron had been moving along in a line of people greeting him when Haloi grasped his hand and spoke for a minute about the harrowing conditions the islands faced without bare essentials since Saturday, when the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the territory off the coast of Africa.
“We are without water, without electricity. There is nowhere to go because everything is being demolished,” he said. “We can’t even take shelter. We are all in the rain with our children, covering ourselves with everything we have to sleep.
At least 31 other people were killed and more than 2,000 people injured, more than 200 seriously, the French government said. But hundreds, if not thousands, are feared dead.
Macron arrived in a while after The Associated Press and other out of doors newshounds were able to succeed in Mayotte to supply testimonies from survivors of the weekend’s horror, when winds howled at more than 220 km/h and tore off the roofs and walls of houses that collapsed around the other folks inside.
In the Kaweni slum on the outskirts of the capital, Mamoudzou, some of the hillside houses have been reduced to rubble of corrugated iron, plastic, piles of bedding and clothing, and pieces of wood that mark the structure. where houses once stood.
“Those of us who are here are still in shock, but God let us live,” Nassirou Hamidouni said as he dug in the rubble of his former home. “We are sad. We can’t sleep because of all of the houses that have been destroyed.”
Macron took a helicopter tour of the damage, then met with patients and at a hospital, where a woman who works in the mental unit became emotional as she described members exhausted and unable to cope. take care of patients.
“Help the hospital staff, help the hospital,” begged the woman, whose call is unknown. “Everyone, from the most sensible to the lowest, is annihilated. “
Macron, who was wearing a traditional red, black and gold Mayotte scarf over his white dress shirt and tie, put his hand on her shoulder as she wiped away tears.
He tried to reassure the others that tons of food, medical aid and more lifeguards had arrived with him and that more help was on the way in the form of water, doctors and a hospital campaign that would be installed on Friday. A military shipment carried 180 tons of aid and equipment, the French military said.
But the stopover took a frustrating turn when Macron was criticized for being out of touch with what was happening on the ground by a guy who said they had been in Ouangani for six days without water or stops from the rescue services.
The president said it took the military four days to clear the roads and put a plan in place to deliver aid.
“If you need to keep shouting to have time in the air,” Macron said as he interrupted the man, who said he had no goal of shouting. “If you are interested in my answer. Otherwise, I’ll leave.
Macron said about 50% of the power grid and water system would be repaired by Friday, although it could take several weeks to achieve this in more remote areas.
Residents expressed anguish over not knowing whether their loved ones were dead or missing, in part due to hasty burials. According to classical Islamic practice, the dead are buried within 24 hours.
“We’re dealing with open-air mass graves,” said Estelle Youssoufa, who represents Mayotte in the French parliament. “There are no rescuers, no one has come to recover the buried bodies.”
Macron said many deaths have gone unreported. He said that the phone will be repaired “in the coming days” so that other people can report that they are missing the ones they enjoy.
Mayotte, with a population of 320,000 residents and an estimated 100,000 additional migrants, is France’s poorest territory.
It is part of a larger archipelago located between the east coast of mainland Africa and northern Madagascar, which was once a French colony. Mayotte voted to remain part of France in a 1974 referendum, while other islands have become the independent country of Comoros.
The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods as many people ignored warnings, thinking the storm wouldn’t be so extreme.
Signs of the crisis and its consequences everywhere.
The streets were flooded with puddles. Crowds of motorcycles and cars covered the outside of a still-operating gas station.
Brightly colored garments hung to dry on the frames of houses and along the railings of a walkway over a rubble-strewn stream in the Kaweni slum.
Families lay on blankets in a school where another 500 people had taken shelter. Women washed their clothes in buckets of water while young people played with pieces on a giant chess board.
Alibouna Haithouna, a displaced mother of four, with her own mother, who had been forced to leave the hospital after her son’s death.
“There is a tragedy. We lost my brother. We are here,” Haïthouna said. “We couldn’t pick up my brother’s frame at the hospital because there were a lot of documents to do. And the most sensible thing is that you have to pay to get the frame back.
Macron waded into a crowd of people waiting for him in Kaweni, kissing young people and hugging citizens who spoke of their struggles. He said he witnessed the emotion and identified some of the anger he faced, but said he was inspired through the resilience of other people.
After a woman described how her home almost collapsed on her children, Macron compared recovery efforts to those needed to reconstruct the recently reopened Notre Dame Cathedral after a disastrous fire.
“If we could rebuild our cathedral in five years, it would be a tragedy if we didn’t manage to rebuild Mayotte,” he said.
Mednick, Surprenant and Corbet write for the Associated Press. Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press Masha Macpherson in Paris and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.
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