In Madagascar winds now gust up to 143 miles per hours as Cyclone Batsirai made landfall on Madagascar’s eastern coast late Saturday before sweeping across the central and southern parts this Sunday. The death toll is now over 92 people and leaving thousands of others homeless. There has been reports that the cyclone flooded almost 7,000 homes, completely destroyed 6,000 and damaged nearly 1,500 houses with this number continuing to climb dramatically. The storm also damaged various infrastructure, including at least 20 roads and 17 bridges, leaving some of the worst-affected areas inaccessible by road. This also leaving many towns and villages in Madagascar without water supply and electricity.
This is event is has impacted over 112,000 people and leaving another 60,000 people dislocated from the tropical storms until the flooding stops. Many countries are coming to help aid this issues for Madagascar. For example France-based independent charity that has worked in Madagascar for over 30 years, has a 163-person team on the ground helping Madagascan authorities evaluate and respond to the disaster. They released a statement saying ¨The amount of destruction is significant and for many this is only the beginning. The storm may have passed, but now the affected communities must restart from scratch¨. This means that millions of dollars will be spent to help repair all damages like schools, homes and hospitals that were affected.
This relates to what we have been talking about in class that International Organizations helping out in the act of a natural disaster. For example the Red Cross and The World Food Program have helped the food assistance branch of the United Nations, has started distributing hot meals to 4,000 evacuated and displaced people in shelters in coordination with Madagascan authorities. Additionally evacuating people from Dalonneau which is a isolated villages that is a 2 days walk and is in a very flooded area that needs aid.