Cyclone Gezani hit the Big Island hard, killing at least 31 people, according to a new report from local authorities released on Wednesday. The depression weakened significantly upon making landfall but continues to cross Madagascar from east to west. Even downgraded to tropical storm stage, it poses risks of flooding.
Published on: 02/11/2026 - 12:19 Modified on: 02/11/2026 - 18:04
“Total chaos”. At least 31 people died in Madagascar after the passage of Cyclone Gezani, which hit the country's second city, Toamasina, hard on Tuesday evening, the Malagasy authorities announced on Wednesday February 11 in a new rising toll.
“What happened is a catastrophe: almost 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the strong man of the Indian Ocean island, Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, told the cameras.
Gusts of 250 km/h ravaged this port of nearly 400,000 inhabitants, where 4 people are also missing and 36 seriously injured, according to the provisional report from the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC).
Videos shared by the presidency show Colonel Michaël Randrianirina wading through the flooded streets of the port city. He had preemptively gone to Toamasina, also called Tamatave – its former name under French colonization – to show his support for the population, four months after the military took power.
To display this Facebook content, it is necessary to authorize audience measurement and advertising cookies.
“90% of house roofs blown away”
In the images, this green city appears disfigured, its streets littered with hundreds of trees uprooted by the most violent winds of the cyclone, the eye of which directly hit the city.
An aerial video shared by the BNGRC shows tin roofs gutted as far as the eye can see and the palm trees of Independence Avenue toppled like simple matchsticks.
“It’s total chaos, 90% of the roofs of the houses have blown off, all or in part,” a regional manager of the NGO Action Against Hunger, Rija Randrianarisoa, described to AFP. “The roads are completely inaccessible, due to trees on the ground, metal sheets. Cars cannot travel.”
The Regional Cyclone Meteorological Center (CMRS) on the French island of Reunion mentioned in its bulletin "one of the most intense direct impacts of the satellite era on the Tamatave sector, probably rivaling Geralda". In February 1994, this cyclone caused at least 200 deaths and 500,000 victims.
If commercial links with Toamasina airport are suspended, its management told AFP that humanitarian and military flights were authorized. Fifteen members of the armed forces' civil protection were dispatched to help with rescue operations, authorities announced.
Appointed president of the Refoundation of the country after the fall of ex-president Andry Rajoelina in October, Michaël Randrianiria said on Wednesday "to launch an appeal for help from our partners and international donors": "The current situation exceeds the capacities of Madagascar alone."
The depression weakened significantly upon making landfall but continues to cross the island from east to west. Even downgraded to tropical storm stage, it poses risks of flooding.
Gezani should regain intensity by joining the Mozambique Channel and then return to cyclone stage, according to CMRS forecasts. From Friday evening it could hit the south of this southern African country already devastated by impressive floods since the start of the year.
With AFP
Keywords associated with the article
The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.
