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Antananarivo. – At least four people have died after a tropical cyclone battered Madagascar’s east coast, with heavy rain and powerful winds tearing roofs off houses and triggering a storm surge.

Cyclone Freddy made landfall on Tuesday, weeks after another tropical storm killed 33 and left thousands without shelter.

Schools have been shut and traffic has been suspended in 10 regions.

The storm affected some 16,600 people according to the country’s National Risk Management Office.

The powerful gusts of wind reached around 130 kilometres per hour; contrary to last year’s cyclone Batsirai, cyclone Freddy did not bring as much rain as expected.

Freddy is the first cyclone and the second tropical weather system to hit Madagascar during the current season according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Freddy was scheduled to move over the Mozambique channel yesterday as a category 2 Cyclone. It will then enter the Mozambique channel as a tropical storm, having lost power while over Madagascar.

It should reach the south-east of Zimbabwe as a tropical depression by Friday.

Last year’s Cyclone Batsirai killed more than 130 people across Madagascar.

Earlier, Freddy caused some damage in Mauritius, flooding beachside hotels.

The head of Madagascar’s National Office of Risk and Disaster Management told the BBC that “negligence” was to blame for the deaths.

“Despite the awareness that we spread. People still dare to ignore the instructions and the warnings,” said Elack Olivier Andrikaja, adding that three of the deaths happened when a home collapsed.

The Indian Ocean island nation of Madagascar is particularly vulnerable to cyclones. It is hit by an average of 1.5 cyclones every year, the highest rate in Africa, according to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The cyclone slightly weakened once it made landfall on Madagascar, with wind gusts exceeding 130km/h. The country’s meteorological service warned that torrential rains would continue along its path. “The sea remains very rough… and a significant risk of coastal flooding will continue overnight.” 

Officials also said 7 000 people had been evacuated from the coastal region . – BBC.com