Cyclone Gezani hits Madagascar, killing nine in Toamasina

Tropical Cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar’s eastern coastline on February 11, killing nine people in the country’s second-largest city and leaving a trail of devastation across coastal communities, Reuters reports.

Authorities reported that 19 people were injured, and nearly 1,500 residents were evacuated as a precaution in districts surrounding the port city of Toamasina after the storm swept inland.

Residents described chaotic scenes as the cyclone made landfall. “I have never experienced winds this violent… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,” said local resident Harimanga Ranaivo.

Gezani is Madagascar’s second cyclone this year, striking just 10 days after Tropical Cyclone Fytia killed 14 people and displaced over 31,000, according to the United Nations humanitarian office.

At its peak, Gezani unleashed sustained winds of about 185 km/h (115 mph), with gusts reaching nearly 270 km/h, powerful enough to tear metal sheeting from rooftops and uproot large trees. Homes collapsed under the force of the winds, roofs were ripped away, walls crumbled, and neighborhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped.

In anticipation of the storm, officials closed schools and prepared emergency shelters, while the National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management warned that rising sea levels were already flooding streets in Toamasina.

By February 11 morning, Madagascar’s meteorological service reported that Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and was moving westward inland, approximately 100 km north of the capital, Antananarivo. “Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,” the service said.

By Vafa Guliyeva