MAMOUDZOU, France – Two weeks after a devastating cyclone hit the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, the atmosphere at Le Manguier school in the capital Mamoudzou is tinged with sadness and resignation.
At this time of year, preparations for the new school year are normally well under way. Instead, the families living there are having to find another place to live, with many of their homes blown away by the storm.
In the courtyard of the Paulette Henry elementary school, as Le Manguier is also known, breakfast is a meal of bread and tuna, washed down with fruit juice.
“There’s no electricity here,” said Mrahati Abdallah, one of the team that manages the centre. “So, we tried to stock up on non-perishable food.”
Amid bottles of water, milk, boxes of biscuits and pureed fruit, town hall officials and volunteers took stock for the last time before distributing the provisions to homeless families who have spent the last two weeks at the school.
“Sometimes we get donations. Then we can give something else,” they said.
As December and the old year drew to a close, faces were tense, with everyone aware that the centre — and 20 other emergency shelters like it in the capital — were shutting.
They opened their doors on December 13, the day before Cyclone Chido hit, and have since been home to nearly 12,500 people.
Le Manguier has housed 21 babies, 118 children and 63 adults.
On Monday, Roukia Abdillah was already preparing to leave.
She lived just a few metres from the school but her home was flattened in the cyclone — the worst to hit France’s poorest department in 90 years, in which at least 39 people were killed.
High winds flattened many of the shanty towns in which some 100,000 to 200,000 people lived.
“We won’t leave here with dirty clothes,” sighed Abdillah as she washed her laundry in a large metal basin.
