Severe cyclone in Madagascar: at least one death, damage and flooding

Antananarivo - The cyclone swept Giovanna in Madagascar on Monday night to Tuesday, with rain and winds that killed at least one death, in Brickaville on the east coast, flooding the streets of the capital and causing property damage not yet evaluated.

A local television reported three dead, one impossible to verify information with the authorities, which are known from experience that the assessments are made to inflate slowly as communications are restored.

For now, there is only one confirmed death, in Brickaville, it was said in the afternoon at the National Office of Risk Management and Disaster (BNGRC), still pending before the release of a more detailed press release.

According to a local information site, the victim was a family man, killed by a falling coconut tree on the roof of his house in Brickaville, remote community of the most important cities of the Big Island.

The Malagasy authorities had launched an alert on Monday night and warned that intense tropical cyclone would sweep the East Coast between Tamatave and Brickaville around 2:00 (2300 GMT) and reach the capital Antananarivo at 9:00 am (6:00 GMT).

Wind gusts - over 100 km / h according to authorities - have blown over Antananarivo from 1:00 am (2200 GMT) and a downpour fell to 7:00 (4:00 GMT).

Many roofs were torn off, a lot of damaged buildings, damaged trees, and the city has recorded several intermittent power cuts, found an AFP correspondent on the spot.

Some neighborhoods were without power since 3:00 (GMT OH00).

Others were reports of national roads cut, falls from power poles and several homeless among the victims.

Still no official figures were available in the early evening.

The streets of Antananarivo offered the spectacle of trees on land, billboards 4x3 bent pipe overflowing, while residents carried their furniture for them to dry.

In the district of Andavamamba, almost all the houses were flooded and the district authorities have drawn up three large tents to house twelve families, fifty persons, whose makeshift homes collapsed.

The day before, authorities had advised people to stay snug Tuesday. Antananarivo remained deserted Tuesday morning before life resumes its course gently.

Another cyclone in Madagascar is expected but not for several days, according to satellite images.

The Antananarivo airport remained open, Air Madagascar, which had announced the cancellation of all flights from the international airport, has finally announced on its website that the maintenance of 10:20 p.m. to Marseille / Paris.

Cyclone Giovanna had already led the Saturday closure of the airport in Port Louis in Mauritius before moving off the island of Reunion on Sunday.

In Madagascar, the hurricane season lasts from November to February and claimed victims every year.

In February 2011, Cyclone Bingiza, came by the east coast, crossed the North and then turn around and cross the south of the island killing at least 34 dead, 11 missing and 216,000 homeless.

In 2010, tropical storm Hubert had killed at least 83 people, plus 34 missing and nearly 187,000 homeless.