French rescue operation underway on Mayotte

France is sending emergency aid and hundreds of rescue workers to the overseas department of Mayotte, which was hit by Hurricane Chido on Saturday. The first aid workers have already arrived from the French island of Réunion, and further support is also being arranged from the European mainland.

Planes with relief supplies and rescue workers have already arrived from Réunion, 1,500 kilometers away in the Indian Ocean. Because the control tower at Mayotte airport has failed, only military flights are possible for the time being. However, there are also ships with emergency aid on their way.

162 rescue workers are flown in from France itself to help the 110 colleagues who arrived on the archipelago just before the hurricane. The country is also sending a naval ship. In addition, a supply ship is deployed with a helicopter on board that can be used for reconnaissance and rescue flights. 1,600 police have also been deployed to the archipelago to help prevent looting.

It quickly became clear that the damage was enormous. Especially in the slums, the corrugated iron shacks have simply been blown apart. In houses that were built more solidly, the roofs often could not withstand wind gusts of up to 220 kilometers per hour. There is rubble and fallen trees everywhere.

“It really is a huge tragedy. It looks like an atomic bomb has gone off. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out,” an island resident told Reuters.

Government buildings were not spared. For example, there was damage to the hospital and the water treatment plant and the warehouse where the local emergency services kept their rescue equipment was itself destroyed. The electricity supply was also damaged.

“People can’t do anything. They stay where they are, waiting for help,” another witness told Reuters. “They need food, power restored and water reconnected.”

The official death toll stands at fourteen, but the prefect of Mayotte says it cannot possibly remain that low due to the enormous destruction. He fears many hundreds to possibly more than a thousand deaths.

What will complicate determining the official death toll is that the residents of Mayotte are almost all Muslim and therefore want to bury the dead within 24 hours. Images already show relatives building field graves for deceased loved ones on mountain slopes.

The enormous damage caused by the hurricane worsens the already miserable situation on Mayotte. Before the natural disaster, one in three of the 350,000 inhabitants lived below the French poverty line. Half of the population has to live on less than 160 euros per month. As a French department, it was officially the poorest region within the European Union.

In recent years, the archipelago has suffered from severe drought, causing regular drinking water supply failures. The problems were exacerbated by poor management of the water network and a lack of investment. Even before the hurricane, diseases such as cholera and typhoid were already occurring, and the fear is that they will now spread further.

French Interior Minister Retailleau is traveling to Mayotte today to take stock of the relief efforts.