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Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Tropical Cyclone Chido struck Southeast Africa, killing "perhaps a few thousand" in France's islands territory of Mayotte on Saturday and then hitting independent Mozambique on Sunday, officials said. Sustained winds were 124 mph in Mayotte and 115 mph in Mozambique. That would be the equivalent of a Category 3 storm if in the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Indian Ocean.
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Originally 14 were reported dead in Mayotte but the island's prefect, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, feared it is many times more.
"I think there will be definitely several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand," Bieuville said on broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere.
"It will take several days" to establish the full death toll, but "we fear that it is heavy."
France's interior minister Bruno Retailleau said "all makeshift homes have been completely destroyed."
He reposted images and video on X from police agencies:
Guy Taylor with UNICEF in Mozambique, said on X.com: "Many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed and we are working closely with government to ensure continuity of essential basic services."
He described the situation in Mozambique and Mayotte to Al Jazeera.
"Everything has been swept away, everything is razed," said Mounira, a woman whose house was destroyed in the Kaweni district in Mamoudzou's east - France's largest shantytown.
Chido made landfall in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which just south of the city of Pemba, The New York Times reported.
Mozambique, with a population of 35 million, is an independent nation that was under Portugal rule until 1975.
Earlier, Chido passed north of Madagascar and hit Mayotte, a French island territory with about 320,000 people that is two islands and 145 square miles about 500 miles east of Mozambique.
Chido formed in the Southwest Indian Ocean Basin on Tuesday as the third named storm of the Southwest Indian Ocean Cyclone season.
Most inhabitants in Mayotte live in shacks with sheet metal roofs, and tens of thousands lost their homes, BBC reported.
France's official weather service said that skies were clearing in Mayotte.
The storm, which is moving southwest, is expected to weaken significantly, according to a forecast from the Meteo-France, the official French meteorological administration.
French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X in French: "I am closely following the situation in Mayotte. Mahorais, the whole country is at your side. Thank you to the state services, rescue and security forces mobilized. Reinforcements are here, others will arrive tomorrow. Now is the time for urgency."
The government in Paris sent supplies and emergency workers on a military plane.
At Pamandzi airport, "all efforts are being made to reopen the airport which will initially only be able to accommodate military aircraft," acting French Transport Minister Francois Durovray wrote in French on X.
Mayotte initially was under a purple alert - the highest level - and a "strict lockdown for the whole population, including emergency services" was imposed.
