Cyclone Batsirai approaches Madagascar, poses “serious threat” | Weather News

Winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour) were forecast when Cyclone Batsirai passed through Madagascar.

Cyclone Batsirai was expected to reach eastern Madagascar on Saturday, posing a “very serious threat” to millions of people as strong winds and heavy rains hit a large Indian Ocean island.

Neighbors gathered before the storm arrived and winds of more than 200 kilometers (124 miles per hour) announced that the country was recovering from the deadly recovery. Ana Tropical Storm at the end of January.

After crossing Mauritius and the French island of La Reunion for two days with heavy rain, Batsirai was about 250 kilometers east of Madagascar on Saturday morning, the weather agency Meteo-France said.

Batsirai is expected to land late Saturday afternoon and evening as a living tropical cyclone, “posing a very serious threat to the environment,” the announcer said in its morning bulletin.

Eyes of the storm announced that it would cross the center of the island overnight by Sunday, before leaving the western shore on Monday.

Winds can reach “more than 200 or 250 km / h … at the point of impact” and waves can reach up to 15 meters (50 feet), according to Meteo-France.

The United Nations said it was stepping up its training with aid agencies, putting rescue planes on hold and piling up humanitarian supplies.

Jats Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian organization OCHA, told them in Geneva on Friday that Batsirai would have a “significant” impact on Madagascar.

Ana killed at least 131,000 people throughout Madagascar in late January. At least 58 people were killed, mostly in the capital Antananarivo. The storm also hit Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, killing dozens.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) estimates that about 595,000 people could be at risk of direct damage to Batsirai, and that 150,000 more could be displaced as a result of the new landslides and floods.

“We are very nervous,” Madagascar’s WFP leader Pasqualina Di Siri told reporters via a video link from the Indian Ocean island.

Island search and rescue teams have been put on alert and residents have secured homes.

Sitting on top of his house, Tsarafidy Ben Ali, a 23-year-old coal salesman, was holding an iron plate on the roof with large bags full of earth.

“The wind gusts will be very strong. That’s why we’re strengthening the roofs, “he told AFP.

The storm threatens at least 4.4 million people in one way or another, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Moon Associations.