Tropical Cyclone Hellen (21S) is currently approaching the coast of Mozambique as a Tropical Disturbance, having affected both the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte and the northwestern parts of Madagascar.
- 400 evacuated in Mayotte
- 170 homes destroyed in Madagascar
- 910 displaced
- 3 dead, 10 missing
- 4,000 ha of rice fields flooded
Mayotte
On Sunday 30 March 2014 it was reported that the storm had caused flooding, power cuts and landslides on Mayotte, and that 400 people had been evacuated owing to concerns of the possible rupture of a hillside reservoir in the Bandraboua area.
Madagascar
After moving away from Mayotte, the tropical storm experienced an extraordinary burst of rapid intensification, with wind speeds increasing from 96km/h (60mph) to 240km/h (150mph) in 24 hours, raising it to a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). This increase in wind-speed is only slightly below the record intensification rate of Hurricane Wilma in the Atlantic Ocean in 2005 (110mph in 24 hours), and makes Hellen potentially one of the most powerful storms seen over the northern Mozambique Channel since the beginning of the satellite era in 1967.
Madagascar’s deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone in modern times, Gafilo, made landfall on March 7, 2004, in northeast Madagascar, killing at least 237 people.
Tropical Cyclone Hellen then moved southeastwards further into the Mozambique Channel, making landfall on the northwest coast of Madagascar on the morning of 31 March roughly between the towns of Soalala and Majunga, in Boeny region, approximately 31 mi (60 km) west of the city of Mahajanga. Fears of a ‘worst case scenario’ however, were narrowly avoided as Hellen had, fortunately, weakened rapidly just before its landfall as a Category 3 storm, nevertheless bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the region.
“Cyclone Hellen due to hit about 75 miles (120 km)south of Mahajanga -morning of March 31, 2014 Sunday. What started out as a quiet tropical storm on the other side of the Mozambique Channel and expected to travel south, has in the last three days traveled across the channel and become a strong cyclone. I am sitting in my home here in Mahajanga at 3am in the morning after checking the rain gauges. The last 24 hours of constant rain and showers has registered 5 inches (13cm) of rain” wrote blogger ‘madagascarlife’ on a Lonelyplanet forum.
By 2 April it was reported that over 170 homes had been destroyed and a further 97 damaged, with 910 people being displaced. The death toll was reported at 3 people, with a further 10 missing after a fishing vessel sank off the coast. According to reports from the National Bureau of Risk Management and Disaster (BNGRC) of Madagascar, around 4,000ha (15.4 sq mi) of rice fields have been flooded.
Meteo France on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean predicts that Hellen will weaken further to a Depression over land, then move southwestward into the Mozambique Channel and head towards Mozambique on the African mainland as a Tropical Disturbance (weaker than a Tropical Depression).
Sources: Reactions Net; Weather.com
