Madagascar: Storm Damage - Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation

Noémie Suter, Medair staff in Madagascar, shares with us a few photos and comments about the Medair team’s first day of evaluation after Cyclone Giovanna hit the island of Madagascar.

Here you see the Medair team unloading the MAF plane after they landed in the area impacted by Cyclone Giovanna. Several Medair staff flew immediately after the storm to the area to assess the damage and put in place a plan to help the people affected by the cyclone.

The team could see extensive damage from the airplane as they flew over the area. About 100 kilometres of coast were impacted, especially the towns of Brickaville and Vatomandry. Happily, the local population was adequately warned through radio announcements and town meetings about the approaching cyclone, and most were able to take shelter in safe places.

The Medair team visits a village to assess the damage in order to put an emergency response plan together. Most of the damage was due to strong winds, which blew away roofs and completely destroyed many houses. Some modest flooding was noted in places, but thankfully the flooding was much less than Madagascar often experiences with cyclones.

Here the team met a very young mother and her children, whose house had been destroyed in the storm.

This is another photo taken by the Medair team during their assessment. It certainly looks like there will be plenty of reconstruction work for months to come before all the residents in the are have safe shelter again.

Here is a last photo from the team as flew away from the area, one that shows another perspective of the extensive damage in the area.

- MedAir