Mayotte: Survivors describe cyclone horror

On the night Cyclone Chida hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, Zinedine was in his home, a small corrugated iron and wood house where he lives with eight of his relatives.

Zinedine received a cyclone warning from the authorities but did not take it too seriously.

“I thought it was like last years when they warned of an approaching cyclone, but there would only be a little rain. So we stayed at home.”

This time, however, the island was to be hit by winds of over 124 mph (200 km/h), the strongest cyclone to hit the island in almost a century

According to the French authorities, at the moment 31 people have died, thousands more are considered missing.

When another, more urgent cyclone warning came, Zinedine sprung into action.

“I told my mom that I’ve never had them send messages like this before, so I think it’s serious this time.”

He suggested that they go to his neighbors, in a brick house not far from his, in a poor area high in the hills of Petit Terri Mayotte, the smaller of the two islands.

But his mom didn’t want to go, and he thought he should stay at home with his family. The 20-year-old tourism student is the eldest boy in the family and feels responsible for them.

When the storm started, he and his mother hid their younger siblings under the table. Then there was a loud noise.

“The iron roof of our house flew off. We panicked and looked for shelter. Iron sheets, wood and other large objects were flying everywhere.”

He took his siblings to a neighbor’s hut when he turned around and noticed that his mom hadn’t followed him.

“I decided to go back outside to get my mother, even though it was dangerous with the wind and everything. I would rather die than leave my mother to die.’

His mother stood in the middle of their ruined home, holding her one-year-old child. She was terrified and wouldn’t let the child go. Zinedin snatched it from his hands and ran to give it to his neighbors. In the end, he had to carry his mother out of the house.

“Luckily, we are all safe, but we lost everything. The only thing we were able to save were our papers and diplomas.”

Now he is trying to rebuild the family home. Finding new building materials in Mayotte is incredibly difficult at the moment due to high demand, and he couldn’t afford a new roof for his house, so he found some sheets of corrugated iron that were blown away by the storm and plans to re-use them.

“I try to do what I can. Although I’m not a builder, I want to do it myself because I don’t know if the authorities will help us.”

Across Mayotte, others like Zinedine are trying to do the same, the sound of hammers late into the night.

But as resourceful as the people of Mayotte are, they are also angry at the lack of support they say they have received from the government.

During French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the islands on Thursday, he was booed when he tried to give a speech. When he visited the hospital, frustrated staff complained that it was overworked.

Most of the people we spoke to in Mayotte had yet to receive any government assistance five days after the cyclone.

“We only got food from volunteers who also gave us clothes and water. The mayor’s office tried to help a little, but that’s all,” says Yasmin Musa, an 18-year-old mother of three.

She took her three boys, the youngest just three months old, to the nearest shelter, a high school in the Labatoire area, shortly after receiving a storm warning Friday afternoon.

“On the day of the cyclone, my children cried because of the noise. When we looked outside, we saw that corrugated iron roofs were flying everywhere. I was constantly asked what was happening, why everything was breaking,” she said.

“I told them it was just wind and rain, but the next day when they saw everything destroyed. They couldn’t sleep that night.”

When she returned home, she had difficulty recognizing her surroundings.

“Mango trees fell during the storm and blocked the roads. My neighbor had to show me my house because I couldn’t even spot it. There was water everywhere, the toilet was broken, my TV, everything was ruined. I tried to save what I could.

“I was in tears, I never thought this would happen.”

Now she has nowhere else to go. She says the conditions at the shelter are decent, but she needs a home to take her children. Now they sleep on mattresses in one of the school classrooms along with a dozen other families.

“It’s not normal to sleep like that. The door doesn’t lock, and sometimes strangers walk in. I am worried about the safety of my children and that they will try to steal from us.’

The Red Cross told the BBC that at least 100,000 people were in shelters around Mayotte.

President Macron promised compensation for the uninsured, who make up the majority of the population, but he did not say how much they would receive.

The needs are enormous: almost all the islands must be rebuilt. But some on the political right in France argue that spending too much money on Mayotte will only encourage more undocumented migrants to come to French territory.

Back at La Vigie, Zinedine says he understands their objections but disagrees.

“At the end of the day, we’re human. And we need help.”