Emergency workers raced on Monday to find survivors and restore services to the French overseas territory of Mayotte, where hundreds or even thousands are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century.

Parts of the islands, which were struck by Cyclone Chido over the weekend with winds of more than 200 kph (124 mph), remained inaccessible to rescue workers on Monday, said French civil security spokesperson Alexandre Jouassard.

“The next minutes and hours are very important,” he told France 2 TV. “We are used to working in these conditions, and a few days after, you have pockets of survivors.”

French President Emmanuel Macron was due to hold an emergency meeting about Mayotte at 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), France’s BFMTV reported.

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The storm was the strongest to strike Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said. It has a population of about 321,000 and is made up of two main islands over an area about twice the size of Washington DC.

Mayotte: Key facts

GEOGRAPHY

Mayotte is a French territory located off the southeastern shores of Africa. It lies to the east of the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros and northwest of Madagascar.

Mayotte is made up of two main islands: Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre. The nearby Comoros cover three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli. Unlike Mayotte, the Comoros declared independence from France in 1975.

Mayotte’s land area is 374 square kilometres (144 sq mi) – slightly more than twice the size of Washington DC. It has a population of some 321,000 people according to official estimates.

It is second to only Paris and its suburbs for population density and the average age is 23 compared with 41 for mainland France.

HISTORY

The islands were first settled by Arab seafarers about 1,000 years ago. The Arabs brought in slaves from Africa and established a series of small sultanates on the different islands, which traded with East Africa and Madagascar.

France colonised Mayotte in 1843 and extended its influence to formally annex the whole archipelago in 1904.

A measure of self-rule in 1961 failed to end agitation for full independence. In a 1974 referendum, 95% backed separation but 63% on Mayotte voted to stay French. Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli unilaterally declared independence on July 6, 1975. Mayotte remains part of France.

ECONOMY

Mayotte is heavily dependent on French financial assistance, and the local economy is dominated by public sector services. The government put together a 1.3 billion euros ($1.37 billion) investment package for the island in 2018, but a 2022 report from the national audit office said it had been poorly followed up on.

While it has flourished under French control, Comoros’ rapidly growing population has suffered poverty and political instability. Hundreds of Comorians risk their lives every year on the dangerous sea crossing to Mayotte.

French social welfare and taxes apply in Mayotte.

In 1898, two cyclones razed Mayotte and a smallpox epidemic decimated the survivors. The sugar industry was abandoned, replaced by vanilla, coffee, sisal and later fragrant plants such as ylang-ylang.

Unemployment runs at 37% on Mayotte compared with 7.4% in mainland France and the median income is 3,140 euro against 23,000 for the mainland, according to the national INSEE statistics institute.

Three in four people live below France’s national poverty rate.

The wreckage of hundreds of makeshift houses was strewn across hillsides. Coconut trees had crashed through building roofs and hospital corridors were flooded, according to images from local media and the French gendarmerie.

“It was the wind, the wind blowing, and I was panicked, I screamed ‘We need help, we need help”, I was screaming because I could see the end coming for me,” John Balloz, who lives in the capital Mamoudzou, told Reuters.

With water supplies cut, residents queued outside grocery stores on Monday in search of bottled water and basic provisions, residents told French television stations.

FULL TOLL UNKNOWN

After Mayotte, Chido made landfall in north Mozambique. It quickly weakened and was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday but still destroyed several houses, authorities said.

The full extent of casualties and damage in Mayotte, which lies between Mozambique and Madagascar, remained unclear.

The prefect of Mayotte, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, said at the weekend that deaths would definitely be in the hundreds and possible several thousand.

Establishing the toll was made harder as some people quickly buried loved ones in accordance with Muslim tradition.

Images from Mayotte showed boats upended, cars buried under rubble and people cowering under tables when the cyclone hit.

Located nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from Paris, Mayotte is a major destination for undocumented immigrants from nearby Comoros. It is significantly poorer than the rest of France: three in four people live below France’s national poverty rate.

Maritime and aerial operations were underway to transport relief supplies and equipment, including from Reunion Island, another French overseas territory, French authorities said.

AIRPORT CLOSED

Mayotte’s main airport, however, remained closed to civilian flights on Monday morning, said Jean-Paul Bosland, the president of France’s national firefighters’ federation.

Medical responders were struggling.

French Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq told BFMTV that floodwaters had been evacuated from Mayotte’s central hospital but that the conditions there were still difficult. She said 100 health reservists were being deployed to Mayotte.

Eric Coquerel, who leads the French parliament’s finance committee, said the destruction in Mayotte laid bare a failure to prepare for the consequences of climate change.

“Living conditions (in Mayotte) are completely unsanitary for many,” he told French broadcaster LCI. “It was evident that … when a cyclone hit … we would find ourselves in a situation.”

Extreme weather events have become more common around the globe, in keeping with global warming. Poorer nations often say they are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis despite historically emitting far less CO2 than richer countries.