Mayotte Reels from Second Cyclone in a Month: Dikeledi Strikes

Fresh floods and mudslides strike French territory Mayotte one month after Cyclone Chido Fresh flooding and mudslides have pounded the French overseas department Mayotte due to Cyclone Dikeledi on January 12. It is one disaster that hit the islands barely one month since Cyclone Chido. Aftermath of Cyclone Dikeledi Cyclone Dikeledi passed some 100 km south of Mayotte, bringing heavy rains, strong winds, and severe flooding in almost all areas. Meteo-France, the French meteorological service, said that the cyclone did not touch the islands but with its huge size and strength, brought devastating destruction. The archipelago was placed on red alert on 11 January. Violent winds, flash floods, and landslides were expected. The scenario will be briefed to the government authorities on high alert, and that would be till up to 13 January. Social media wp_posts are showing fully water-covered streets and electric power lines lying on the road after the storm. Cyclone Chido, however ignored the south village Mbouini and is already underwater. In such a serious case, certain parts of Mayotte are also reported to be in floods which are causing tremendous distress. Affected also is the Island of Madagascar Cyclone Dikeledi was destructive in Mayotte but also destructive in Madagascar where it landed on January 11. The storm killed three people in the country, and part of northern Madagascar was put under red alert. The island is no stranger to powerful cyclones, but this event has compounded the damage that the earlier storms have caused in the region. Mayotte Still Digging Out from Cyclone Chido Cyclone Chido, which on 14 December 2024 ravaged the islands of Mayotte, left the islands of Mayotte battered to badness. The storm was categorized as a Category 4. That was one of the most potent and destructive cyclones to ravage the area in 90 years; its winds reached 260 km/h or 160 mph. According to Associated Press reports, 39 persons lost their lives while over 200 remained unaccounted for; over 5,000 injured. Cyclone Chido, after passing some 100 km south of Mayotte, left devastating damage trails. Thousands are reportedly homeless as Cyclone Dikeledi arrived in a bid to further complicate conditions, which people were still in the process of trying to recover from previous destructions, most notably in regions where extreme weather persists, and this is now to increase the speed of recovery processes. Cyclone Season Outlook La Réunion, the Météo-France forecasted that the region would trend upward to violent cyclones and had already warned in the month of October 2024 that this season would come sooner and would make more noise. Indeed, the World Meteorological Organisation had mentioned that the season of cyclone would come earlier than its expected time, just a little advanced and more intensive. Between 9 and 13 systems of tropical cyclones likely to be recorded in the region, of which that type of storms frequent and so intense is possible. The cyclone season prediction forecast 4 to 7 to possibly become a tropical cyclone, thus pointing out the alarm perceived on the climate change impact on the frequency and intensity of cyclones. On this basis, the vulnerability of this region makes it call out for stronger infrastructures and better disaster preparedness ahead of the impending storms. Climate Change Global Concerns In general, recent storms over Mayotte and Madagascar have highlighted the problem of climate change. It is also observed that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that there will be more frequency and strength of extreme events, including cyclones, due to rising global temperatures. And as the oceans warm up, it automatically means that the storms will strengthen; thus, with global warming, Cyclone Dikeledi and Cyclone Chido will intensify in the future. Extreme weather events are going to remain on the rise in the South-West Indian Ocean. Islands have less infrastructure towards rapid reconstruction and the scale of disaster of this nature devastates islands like Mayotte. Higher frequencies of storms increase demands from local authorities and international groups to invest further in infrastructures that are being developed towards disaster preparedness and climate resilience to minimize impacts at the time of disasters. Conclusion It has been only a month since the total destruction caused by Cyclone Chido, and Mayotte is again facing the consequences of another powerful cyclone described as worse in its intensity, Dikeledi. Cyclone Dikeledi has caused floods and mudslides and power outages that were only compounded on the already strained islands. Indeed, this is an active season for cyclones wherein storms advance at an increasing pace where that raises a quite grim alert not just on building disaster preparedness but increasing their resilience about this aspect. Indeed, what the effects of Cyclone Chido and Cyclone Dikeledi demand is swift urgency to take seriously solutions to problems brought about by climate change so that there should be infrastructure erected which is able to withstand strong and frequent such storms.