The Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and La Reunion were on high alert Thursday for an intense tropical storm, Cyclone Garance, labelled a “direct threat” to the tourist destinations.
Mauritius shut its main airport on Wednesday, while the nearby French island of La Reunion was set to do the same on Thursday.
Authorities in La Reunion put the island on its highest “purple alert” Friday as the cyclone approached its shores.
“Faced with a direct impact, with winds gusting to more than 200 km/h (around 125 miles per hour), the prefect will trigger the purple alert,” authorities said in a press release published on X.
The Mauritius Meteorological Service said the cyclone was 310 kilometres (190 miles) northwest of the island and had become an “intense tropical storm”.
The cyclone is “dangerously approaching Mauritius and constitutes a direct threat,” it said, adding that flooding was expected.
Garance was heading east but has curved south to pass between Mauritius and La Reunion.
Read moreMauritius lifts maximum alert, assesses devastation after passage of storm Belal
On its current trajectory, the cyclone was expected to pass within 50 kilometres of La Reunion between Thursday evening and Friday morning, the prefecture said in a statement.
Weather service Meteo-France warned there could be a “direct impact” on La Reunion urging the population of around 900,000 to stay indoors.
There were heavy clouds over La Reunion early Thursday, but no significant rainfall.
Around midday (0800 GMT) the cyclone was still 300 kilometres away.
Stocking up on essentials
A “red alert” was originally triggered at 7.00 pm, authorities announced, with the cyclone expected to reach its closest point to the island early Friday.
A red alert measure requires the population to stay indoors and only emergency services can move around the island. Schools were closed from Wednesday afternoon.
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Thousands of people in La Reunion shopping for basic goods before the expected lockdown, forming long checkout queues in shops.
“I thought I had plenty of time to do my shopping, but I was wrong,” said one shopper, Franck Vitry, stocking up on bottled water in a supermarket in Port, in the west of the island.
“It took me 30 seconds to grab the water, and I’ve been waiting in line to pay for 10 minutes,” he sighed.
Others were loading candles, batteries and canned food into overflowing caddies.
“I bought frozen puff pastry, eggs and sugar so we can bake to keep the kids occupied during the red alert,” said Maryvonne Laurent, 36, shopping in Saint-Denis with her two sons, four and seven.
Fishermen in the nearby port of Sainte-Marie pulled their boats onto dry land and secured nets, while further inland, farmers pulled covers off greenhouses.
Jean-Christophe Hoareau, a farmer in Etang-Sale-Les-Hauts on La Reunion’s southern tip, said he preferred to sacrifice cucumber vines rather than risk his greenhouses being destroyed by gale-force winds. “They’re our main working tools,” he said.
The previous red cyclone alert in La Reunion was issued in January 2024 when Cyclone Belal hit the island, killing four people and causing an estimated 100 million euros ($104 million) of damage.
(AFP)
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