MAPUTO, Mozambique: The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique has risen by 11 to 45, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management said Wednesday as devastated Mayotte battles to recover from cyclone ‘steamroller’.
Initial figures released on Tuesday said the cyclone had claimed 34 lives after making landfall in Mozambique on Sunday at the northern Cabo Delgado province.
In its updated toll, the centre said 38 people were killed in Cabo Delgado, four in Nampula province and three in Niassa, further inland. One person was missing, it said.
Nearly 500 people were reported injured by the cyclone, which brought winds of around 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour and heavy rainfall of around 250 millimetres (10 inches) in 24 hours, the centre said.
Nearly 24,000 homes were destroyed and another 12,300 were partially destroyed, it said. More than 181,000 people were affected by the storm.
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Chido struck a part of northern Mozambique that is regularly battered by cyclones and is already vulnerable because of conflict and underdevelopment.
The cyclone landed in Mozambique after hitting the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where it is feared to have killed hundreds and possibly even thousands of people.
Devastation in Mayotte
The district of La Vigie of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life. Now it no longer exists.
All that remains after Cyclone Chido rammed into Mayotte at the weekend, leaving devastation unprecedented in the last century in its wake, are ravaged hills, piles of tangled sheet metal and wood, and a few bare tree trunks.
—Photo by Kwezi / AFP – Getty Images
Everyone, from Mayotte locals to officials far away in Paris, knows that the official toll of 22 dead risks rising exponentially.
“What I fear is that the toll will be far too high,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who visited Mayotte on Monday, told BFMTV, describing the damage as “colossal”.
