Cyclone Freddy in Madagascar: “I have never heard gusts like this”
The very intense tropical cyclone called Freddy hit Madagascar on Tuesday, February 21 around 7:30 p.m. local time.
VIA REUTERS-NASA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The very intense tropical cyclone called Freddy made landfall on Tuesday afternoon, bringing with it gusts reaching 180 km / h and waves more than eight meters high.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Sarah Tétaud
“
It is 6:30 p.m., night is falling, the gusts are getting stronger and stronger, but we are still watching our neighbors who are filling sandbags in their garden to stabilize their roof.
However, the wind is enormous.
There are metal sheets flying around so it's starting to get quite dangerous,
" says Jeanne Simonnin, gender-based violence manager for Doctors of the World, deployed in Mananjary with the emergency response team, from her office window. .
The city, located on the southeast coast of the Big Island, had already been hit hard last year by Cyclone Batsirai.
It is a little after 7:30 p.m. local time when Freddy makes landfall.
“
When the cyclone landed, all the doors and windows started shaking!
“, describes Tahina, a neighbor.
With her parents and her three children, the mother of the family preferred to leave her home to take shelter in her husband's hard office.
“
You can hear the wind blowing on the roof, it's moving.
Next to us, there are at least five houses that have lost their roofs.
There are houses that are in foliage, there, it is not their roofs that are gone, but really their walls!
»
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To read also: Madagascar: the population is preparing to face an intense tropical cyclone
A few streets away, Patrick Razafindradimy, inclusion manager at the NGO Humanity and Inclusion, testifies to the violence of the cyclone: “
It's really scary.
I have never felt or heard gusts like that.
It's really new for me.
And even in a resistant shelter, it's really scary.
I can't imagine what people are going through in houses that aren't solid right now!
»
The cyclone started to move inland.
Freddy is due to cross Madagascar from east to west and exit through the Mozambique Channel this Wednesday afternoon.
For now, people are asked to stay safe.
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