ANTANANARIVO: The death toll from Cyclone Batsirai in Madagascar jumped to 120 on Friday from 92 reported earlier this week, the state disaster relief agency said.
The cyclone hit the Indian Ocean island late on Saturday, slamming the southeastern coastline before receding late on Sunday.
The disaster relief agency said that of the deaths, 87 had occurred in one area, the Ikongo district in southeast Madagascar. It said earlier this week it was still collecting details about what had happened in Ikongo. The latest update raises the death toll from 111 reported earlier on Friday.
The agency said the cyclone had left just over 124,000 people with their homes damaged or destroyed, and some 30,000 more displaced and camping at 108 sites.
Batsirai was Madagascar's second destructive storm in two weeks, after Tropical Storm Ana killed and displaced 130,000 in a different area of the country, further north. The island nation, with a population of nearly 30 million, was already struggling with food shortages in the south, a consequence of a severe and prolonged drought.
In the coastal town of Mananjary, which suffered the storm's greatest force, people have started clearing debris and tree limbs from the streets.
Some buildings had collapsed, other somehow stayed standing. Most of the town's homes were destroyed.
As the storm ploughed inland, crops were destroyed. Henriette, 66, survives by growing rice, pineapples and cassava. Her home was reduced to rubble.
"My house wasn't too strong to begin with, so I decided to stay at my sister's place. But I didn't have time to carry all my things, or my furniture," she said. "When I came back Sunday morning, my house was destroyed."
According to Unicef, 112,000 people need emergency aid, including 62,000 people left homeless. Half of those needing help are children.
"The picture should continue to look something like this," as the areas where rescue workers have yet to reach are sparsely populated, said Jean Benoit Manhes, Unicef's deputy representative in Madagascar. - AFP
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