ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – A tropical cyclone that swept across the island of Madagascar this week killed at least 11 people and displaced thousands more, according to the country’s disaster management office.
Tropical cyclone Gamane, which crossed the northeast of Madagascar on Wednesday and Thursday, displaced more than 18,000 people with three others still missing, the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said in a report late on Thursday.
Gamane made landfall north of Vohémar in northeast Madagascar on Wednesday morning with average winds of 150 km per hour and gusts of 210 km per hour, BNGRC said.
It slowly dissipated on Thursday afternoon while still over land, the disaster management office said, having dumped heavy rain and caused flooding in many localities.
Roads and bridges collapsed in the north of Madagascar, BNRGC said.
Photographs posted on the disaster management office’s Facebook page showed its personnel wading in knee-deep water as they helped residents retrieve belongings from their flooded homes.
Gamane is the first this year in Madagascar’s cyclone and storm season.
Early last year, cyclone Freddy and tropical storm Cheneso killed at least 37 people and forced thousands from their homes.
(Reporting by Lovasoa Rabary; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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