France's battered Mayotte islands hit by a new tropical storm just weeks after a devastating cyclone
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The French territory of Mayotte was battered by a new tropical storm Sunday, just weeks after the worst cyclone to hit the islands in nearly a century laid waste to entire neighborhoods and villages and forced a huge recovery effort by authorities. Mayotte's people were ordered to stay indoors or find a solid shelter if they didn't have one, and store food and water, as Tropical Storm Dikeledi brought heavy rains and strong winds to once again pound France's poorest department.
Mayotte, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, had only just begun the process of rebuilding after the devastation of Cyclone Chido last month, which killed at least 39 people, left more than 200 still missing, and injured more than 5,000 when in struck on Dec. 14.
Dikeledi passed over nearby Madagascar as a cyclone on Saturday but had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached Mayotte on Sunday, French meteorological service Meteo-France said. The center of the storm would pass about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Mayotte, Meteo said. Chido had hit Mayotte head-on.
Meteo-France warned Dikeledi could strengthen into a cyclone again, while authorities in Mayotte said there was a high danger of flooding and landslides and issued a red alert for the islands on Saturday night. That alert would remain in place for Sunday and civilians were forbidden from being outside until the alert was lifted, said the Mayotte Prefecture, the French government department that runs the territory.
