2024-01-14 19:43:11
Alert to the government. Due to the arrival of Cyclone Belal on Reunion Island this Sunday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is convening a crisis unit at 7 p.m. at the Ministry of the Interior, Matignon announces.
“The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories will go to the Operational Center for Interministerial Crisis Management at the Ministry of the Interior at 7:00 p.m.,” Place Beauvau in Paris. “They will take stock of prevention and preparation operations to deal with cyclone Belal in Reunion,” detail the Prime Minister’s services. This crisis center is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Reunion is preparing for the passage of Belal on Monday, which could develop into a devastating cyclone and “mark the history” of the French island in the Indian Ocean, whose population is called to confine itself from Sunday evening. The prefect of this department-region of some 870,000 inhabitants announced the triggering of the red cyclone alert from 8:00 p.m. local time (5 p.m. in Paris).
The confined population
From this time until Tuesday morning, “each and everyone must confine themselves to a safe place,” asked prefect Jérôme Filippini during a press conference. The population must “dedicate the coming hours to doing nothing other than preparing for confinement”, in particular by ensuring “the place where we are going to shelter” and “the availability of our reserves”, insisted the state representative.
In a message posted on “All means have been mobilized” to help them, added the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, who assured to follow the evolution of the situation “closely”, in conjunction with President Emmanuel Macron. and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
On the same social network, the president of the region Huguette Bello invited “the people of Reunion to exercise the greatest caution”. “A severe test faces us,” she said.
Authorities fear that Belal, which is currently a “strong tropical storm” located some 280 km northwest of Reunion, will become an “intense tropical cyclone” on Monday as it passes over the island or in the immediate vicinity.
Towards a purple alert?
Its winds could be “devastating” according to Météo France, which speaks of a cyclone “which could mark the history” of Reunion Island. The island has not been hit by an intense cyclone for ten years and the passage of Bejisa in the first days of 2014.
“What is happening in Reunion Island is a phenomenon which is undoubtedly even more intense than what we could talk about yesterday when we gave references to 10 years, 20 years,” warned the prefect, referring instead to Jenny in 1962.
He indicated that he did not “exclude” a move to “purple alert”, which would mean “prohibiting rescue teams, assistance teams, technical services (…) from going out because there would be immediate danger for them- same,” he said on BFMTV.
“With the two floods in Pas-de-Calais and the cyclone on its way to Reunion, France is entering the era of repeated natural disasters,” the leader of France Insoumise wrote on X (ex-Twitter), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who calls for “seriously rethinking the methods of national mutual aid to adapt to them”.
With the two floods in Pas-de-Calais and the cyclone en route to Reunion, France is entering the era of repeated natural disasters. Let us seriously rethink the methods of national mutual aid to adapt to them. Thoughts for the people of Reunion in anguish, the…
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) January 14, 2024
According to Météo France, winds from Belal could exceed 200 km/h on the coast and 250 km/h “or more” in the heights of the island. “Destructive and devastating winds which can cause great damage,” estimated forecaster Sébastien Langlade.
Given the expected precipitation, “certain rivers, certain ravines, will undoubtedly exceed the red threshold tomorrow, Monday. These are thresholds which have references to 30 years or 100 years,” insisted the prefect.
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