Mayotte: Survivors describe cyclone horror

The night Chido hit the French Indian Ocean region of Mayotte, Zinedine was at home, a small tin and wood house where he lives with his eight siblings.

Zinedine had received a warning from the authorities about the storm, but he did not take it seriously.

“I thought it was like the previous years when they warned that a storm was coming but it would only rain a little. So we stayed home.”

However this time the island was about to be hit by winds of over 124mph (200km/h) – the strongest to hit the island in almost a century.

So far 31 people are known to be dead, according to French authorities, and thousands more are feared missing.

When another, more severe storm warning came in, Zinedine sprung into action.

“I told the mother that it has never happened before that they send a message like this so I think this time is serious.”

He told them to go to their neighbors’ place, a brick and mortar house near their home, in a poor area high up in the mountains of Petite Terre in Mayotte, the smaller of its two islands.

But his mother did not want to go, and felt that he should stay at home with his family. The 20-year-old student is the oldest boy in his family and feels responsible for them.

When the storm started, she and her mother hid her little ones under the table. Then there was a loud noise.

“The metal of the roof of our house broke. We panicked and sought shelter. There were metal, wood and other large objects flying everywhere.”

He took his siblings to the neighbor’s house when he turned around and saw that his mother had not followed him.

“I decided to go back outside to get my mother even though it was dangerous with the wind and everything. I’d rather die than let my mother die.”

His mother stood in the middle of their damaged house holding a one-year-old child. He was very scared and did not let the child go. Zinedine took him out of his arms and ran to give it to the neighbors. Then he picked up his mother and took her out of the house.

“Luckily we are all safe but we have lost everything. All we could save were papers and diplomas.”

Now he is trying to rebuild his family home. Finding new building materials is very difficult in Mayotte at the moment due to the high demand, and he couldn’t afford a new roof for his house so he tracked down the tin that was blown by the storm and planned to repurpose it.

“I try to do my best. Although I’m not an architect, I want to build it myself because I don’t know if the authorities will help us.”

Across Mayotte, others like Zinedine are trying to do the same, the sound of hammers ringing until midnight.

But even though the people of Mayotte have wisdom, they are also angry and need the help they have received from the government.

During the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to the islands on Thursday, he was frustrated trying to speak. As they went to the hospital, frustrated workers complained that they were overwhelmed.

Most of the people we spoke to in Mayotte had not received any government assistance, five days after the storm hit.

“We just received donations of food from volunteers who also gave us clothes and water. The mayor’s office tried to help a little but that’s it,” says Yasmine Moussa, an 18-year-old mother of three.

She took her three sons, the youngest just three months old, to the safest place, a secondary school in nearby Labattoir, as soon as the storm warning was issued on Friday afternoon.

“On the day of the storm, my children were crying because of the noise. When we looked outside, we saw tin roofs flying everywhere.

“I told them it was just wind and rain but the next day when they saw everything was destroyed. They didn’t sleep that night.”

When he returned home, he could not recognize the area where he lived.

“Mango trees fell during the storm and blocked the roads, my neighbor pointed out my house because I couldn’t see it, there is water everywhere, the toilet is broken, my TV, everything was destroyed. I tried to save as much as I could.

“I was in tears, I didn’t think this would happen.”

Now he has nowhere else to go. He said that the things in the house are good but he needs a house to take his children. They are currently sleeping on a mattress in one of the school’s rooms along with a dozen other families.

“It’s not normal to sleep like this. The doors don’t lock and sometimes strangers come in. I’m worried about my children’s safety and that they will try to rob us.”

The Red Cross told the BBC that there are at least 100,000 people in camps near Mayotte.

President Macron has promised compensation for the vulnerable, which is the majority of the population, but has not said how much he will get.

The needs are great: almost all the islands need to be rebuilt. But some on the French political right argue that spending more money on Mayotte will only encourage undocumented migrants to come to French territory.

Back at La Vigie, Zinedine says he understands the opposition but does not agree with it.

“We’re human at the end of the day. And we need help.”