Perilous
Times and Climate Change
At Least 111 Killed, 332,204 people homeless in Madagascar
Tropical Storm
2012-03-09 20:20:43
Xinhua
The two latest tropical disturbances which hit Madagascar last
week killed at least 111 people and left 332,204 people homeless,
the national office of risks and disasters management (BNGRC) said
in its release on Friday.
The BNGRC said in its preliminary assessment that the moderate
tropical storm Irina, which swept through the northeast of
Madagascar on Feb. 26 and docked the southwest coast of the island
country until March 2, killed 76 people, injured 15, wiped out
three and left homeless 85,335 others.
The highest number of deaths recorded after the passage of Irina
was in Ifanadiana district in the southeast of the island country
with 48 death tolls, while Vangaindrano and Farafangana districts,
also in the southeast, recorded the most homeless with
respectively 3,909 and 25,086.
Nearly 7,056 housing spaces were flooded, 147 were damaged and
1,372 were completely destroyed by Irina, while 3,713 hectares of
rice fields and 12,600 crop fields were affected. These data were
collected from 103 of the 829 municipalities in the trajectory of
Irina.
Regarding the tropical Cyclone Giovanna, which came by the east
coast of Madagascar on Feb. 13 and left the country on Feb. 14 by
the southwest coast, the BNGRC reported 35 death tolls, 284
injured and 246,869 homeless.
Madagascar is an island located in the southern hemisphere and in
the cyclonic basin of the Indian Ocean, where a dozen tropical
disturbances form every year from Nov. 15 to April 30.