Three people were reported dead in southeastern Madagascar on Sunday after cyclone Batsirai made landfall, leaving a trail of devastation including collapsed buildings, power cuts and flooding.
An official told Reuters that one of the towns badly affected was Nosy Varika on the coast where most of the buildings were destroyed and the town was cut off from the surrounding area due to flooding.
Batsirai swept inland late on Saturday, slamming into Madagascar’s eastern coastline with heavy rains and wind speeds of 165 kilometres per hour (103 miles per hour). It was projected it could displace as many as 150,000 people.
The damage from the storm system is compounding the destruction wreaked by another cyclone, Ana, which hit the island just two weeks ago, killing 55 people and displacing 130,000 people.
Madagascar state radio reported three people had been killed in the town of Ambalavao, about 460 km south of the capital Antananarivo, when their house collapsed as the storm swept the area.
The government’s office for disaster management was expected to release figures of casualties and displacement later on Sunday.
Elsewhere in the central Madagascar region of Haute Matsiatra villagers shovelled mud from a road on Sunday to clear damage from a landslide caused by Batsirai.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) of Zimbabwe Saturday issued a statement saying the Tropical Cyclone Batsirai which is over southern areas of Madagascar is strengthening the south-easterly airflow into the country.