The island was hit this Saturday by Cyclone Chido, with “unprecedented” violence with winds of almost 200 km/h. The prefecture asks everyone to remain confined.
«This is a serious moment. Mayotte has never experienced a situation like this.”said the president of the departmental council of Mayotte, Ben Issa Ousseni, on Friday 13 December. The inhabitants of the Indian Ocean archipelago are hit this Saturday by the passage of Chido, an intense tropical cyclone.“This is an unprecedented event,extremely violent,winds could exceed 180 km/h”explained the prefect of the department François-Xavier Bieuville in a press conference.
At 7am this morning, Mayotte entered purple alert, the highest level of cyclonic alert, by decision of the prefect, before returning to red alert shortly after midday.
Population containment
Throughout the morning residents were called by the prefecture “remain confined to a solid home, with a supply of water and food available to survive the cyclone”. A strict obligation under purple alert, which remains strongly recommended under red alert. Despite this relegation, the prefecture continues to ask not to do so “Do not go out for any reason.” The population is also invited to cut off electricity and do so “call only if absolutely necessary”. Though,a Public Information Center (CIP) is active on 09.70.80.90.40. This number does not replace the emergency numbers 17, 18 and 15.
On the other hand, the transition to red alert will allow law enforcement and emergency services to deconfine. From this morning the latter should, like the population, “Confine yourselves and you will not be able to intervene during the entire purple alert”points to the prefecture’s website, which encourages mahoraites to “follow the official instructions given by the authorities on the radio (Mayotte La 1ère) and on the prefecture’s website and social networks”.
Early this morning the prefecture warned that the purple alert would be triggered “followed by a red alert phase during which you will have to remain confined to a shelter”. And ask the inhabitants: “wait for the red alert to be lifted and for official instructions to be issued.Last night the prefect invited people hosted in precarious accommodation, very numerous in the poorest department of France, to confine themselves to the reception centers opened by the authorities.