Cyclone Gamane kills 11 people in Madagascar

A slow-moving cyclone that unexpectedly headed towards Madagascar killed 11 people in the island nation as strong winds tore down trees and torrents of water rushed through villages and washed away homes, officials said.

BNGRC's National Disaster Management Agency announced on Thursday morning that Cyclone Gamane was expected to brush over an island in the Indian Ocean east of southern Africa, but changed course and made landfall in the north on Wednesday.

So far, six people have drowned and five people have died due to collapsed houses and falling trees, authorities said, adding that about 7,000 people on the island were affected by the storm.

The cyclone moved slowly, amplifying its destructive effects.

Video images showed torrents of water flowing through a village and people forming human chains in waist-deep water to try to escape the deluge for those trapped in their homes. .

Many roads and bridges were flooded and cut off.

“It is unusual for a cyclone like this to occur. Its movement is almost stationary,” BNRGC Secretary-General General Elak Andriakaja told AFP.

“If the system goes down in one place, all the infrastructure is destroyed. And it has a severe impact on the population. And there was also massive flooding,” he added.

He said the low-pressure system was “expected to skim the northeast coast of Madagascar, but this is a natural phenomenon and there was a change in its trajectory,” adding that at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday it “finally made landfall in the Vohemal region.” Stated.

Meteorologists said Gamane has been reclassified as a tropical cyclone and is expected to leave the island by Friday afternoon.

The cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean typically lasts from November to April and includes about 12 storms each year.

Source: guardian.ng