Gezani comes just 11 days after Cyclone Pythia killed 12 people and displaced 31,000 in northwestern Madagascar.
Madagascar’s National Meteorological Service said hurricane-force winds and heavy rain were expected to continue as Cyclone Gezani passed across the Indian Ocean island nation over the next few hours, with residents reporting widespread damage.
In an update local time on Wednesday (22:00 GMT), Madagascar’s Meteorological Service warned that “widespread flooding, flash flooding and landslides are very likely” as the cyclone moves towards the country’s central highlands from east to west overnight and throughout Wednesday.
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A red alert meaning imminent danger has been issued for the Analanjirofo, Atsinanana, Alaotra Mangoro, Analamanga and Betsiboka regions in northeastern Madagascar, Madagascar Meteo said on its website.
Gezani has already caused flooding, power outages and widespread damage to homes, according to residents interviewed by AFP.
“It’s terrible. Everything is devastated, roofs are blown off, floors are flooded, solid walls of houses have collapsed,” a resident of Toamasina, a port city on Madagascar’s eastern coast, told AFP by phone when communications briefly returned.
“We’re talking about a nice neighborhood with well-built houses,” said a resident who had been without electricity since the afternoon, five hours before the cyclone struck.
Colonel Michael Landrianirina, who has been in power in Madagascar since an October military coup, said he would head to Toamasina, the capital of the Achinanana region and the country’s main port, to be closer to the people after Gezani passes.
CMRS cyclone forecasters on the French island of Reunion confirmed that the port of Toamasina was “directly hit by the strongest part” of Gezani.
According to CMRS, the cyclone’s landfall would have been one of the most intense recorded in the region during the satellite era, comparable to Cyclone Geralda in February 1994. The storm killed at least 200 people and affected half a million more.
Gezani lost vitality as it headed inland to Madagascar and was downgraded to tropical storm level, but is expected to regain cyclonic speed as it crosses the strait toward Mozambique.
Madagascar’s Meteorological Service said the storm was expected to continue towards the African mainland, moving “into the Mozambique Channel between Main Tirano and Morondava tomorrow evening or overnight.”
Less than two weeks after Tropical Cyclone Fytia struck northwestern Madagascar on Jan. 31, Gezani made landfall Tuesday night, killing at least 12 people and displacing 31,000, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA.
OCHA added that the storm flooded, damaged or destroyed 18,600 homes, 493 classrooms and 20 health facilities and caused “extensive damage to rice fields.” He added that the flooding had also affected drinking water supplies, posing a risk to public health.
Tropical storms are expected to become more intense due to climate change, and island nations are expected to be particularly at risk from heavy rainfall due to rising sea levels and warming oceans.
