After killing one person during its passage in Reunion Island, Cyclone Belal threatens Mauritius on Tuesday, where torrential rains have taken the inhabitants by surprise and where the first damage has been recorded. Cyclone Belal is about 150 km south-southeast of Mauritius and is moving eastward at a speed of about 15 km per hour, according to the Mauritian Meteorological Service.
The alert level on the island of 1.3 million people has been raised to 4, the highest level. The government ordered all residents to stay at home, but the weather service said the storm was now moving east, away from the island nation. Several roads are impassable, including the coastal roads of Batimarais and Riambel, according to local media L'express.
In the capital Port-Louis, cars were stranded on Monday, with water up to their hoods, sometimes even swept away by the current, according to images broadcast by local media.
Airport closed, flights cancelled
Other images showed powerful waves submerging the capital's waterfront, as well as flooded buildings with furniture floating in the water. Gusts of more than 120 km/h have been recorded over the last twelve hours (124 km/h in Quatre Bornes, 121 km/h in Nouvelle DĂ©couverte, in particular). Swells of 8 to 10 meters are forecast in the open ocean, the weather service warns.
VIDEO. Cyclone Belal: Mauritius surprised by impressive floods
Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport said it would close "from 16:30 p.m. (local time, 12:30 GMT) until further notice." The airline Air Mauritius is cancelling several flights scheduled for Tuesday, including one from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, according to a message published on its X account and relayed by local media.
🚨 Flights will be rescheduled when the airport reopens pic.twitter.com/ebEoXpfL1Q
— l'express (@lexpressmaurice) January 16, 2024
Police said the body of a motorcyclist was found on a flooded highway after a traffic accident. Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, in a statement on national television on Monday, confirmed one death.
In a speech, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth criticised the MMS and announced that its director had tendered his resignation. "I have to admit that the country has had difficult times because of Cyclone Belal," he said, adding that he was "surprised that the arrival of the heavy rains was not anticipated by the meteorological services. I share the anger of many Mauritians. Those responsible will have to take responsibility."
150,000 households without electricity in Reunion Island
In the French island of Reunion, one death was recorded on Monday: that of a homeless person found dead in Saint-Gilles, in the west of the territory. Some 150,000 households were without electricity and more than 130,000 people had no access to running water by the evening.
According to an AFP journalist, many trees are clogging the streets of towns in the west of the island and several secondary roads have been flooded. As a sign of the violence of the winds, a big game fishing boat was partially submerged in the marina of Saint-Gilles.
A boat stranded after Belal's passage through Saint-Paul, Reunion Island, on Monday. AFP/RICHARD BOUHET
But cyclone Belal "fortunately did not cause the cataclysm that we feared", explained the island's prefect JĂ©rĂ´me Filippini during a video press conference, while assuring that "its impact was impressive". "It will go down in the history of cyclones and its effects have not quite ended," he said, referring to an "evolutionary assessment" as the damage in many areas has not yet been assessed.
Darmanin on site on Wednesday
However, the population of this overseas department of 870,000 inhabitants remains confined at least until Tuesday morning, when a new assessment of the situation will be made by the authorities, so as to allow rescue teams to continue clearing the roads.
French Interior Minister GĂ©rald Darmanin will spend Wednesday on the island, at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, to accompany the victims and support rescue personnel, the minister's entourage said on Monday evening.
VIDEO. "I've never seen such violent gusts": they tell the story of Cyclone Belal's passage through Reunion Island
The mayor of the commune of Sainte-Marie, in the north of Reunion Island, has requested a declaration of natural disaster. "The passage of cyclone Belal caused very serious damage to the municipality of Sainte-Marie. No neighborhood was spared from the winds and precipitation. The central town hall has suffered damage that makes its premises impassable until further notice," Mayor Richard Nirlo said in a statement.
Sainte-Marie is located near Reunion's Roland-Garros airport, which is due to resume flights on Tuesday at 20 p.m. (17 p.m. in Paris), according to the prefecture.
255 km from the coast of Reunion Island
After hitting Reunion around 9 am from the north and west of the island, the wall of the eye of the cyclone had finally deflected its course to the north without entering the interior, as initially predicted by Météo France.
At 0:30 GMT Tuesday, Belal was 255 km southeast of the Reunion coast, according to a bulletin from Météo France.
Cyclone #Belal's journey from development to damaging impacts on the islands of RĂ©union and Mauritius. pic.twitter.com/CziOCxNz1Z
— Zoom Earth (@zoom_earth) January 15, 2024
Reunion Island has not been hit by an intense cyclone for ten years and the passage of Bejisa in the first days of 2014. But the comparison that many feared was that of Cyclone Firinga, which had a devastating impact in 1989.
Mauritius, a popular tourist island for its white sand beaches and crystal clear waters, was hit in February 2023 by heavy rains and the strong winds of Cyclone Freddy, which had ravaged southeastern Africa, particularly in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar.
A dozen storms or cyclones cross the south-west Indian Ocean each year during the cyclone season, which runs from November to April.