Families scramble to help after deadly cyclone rips through French territory of Mayotte off Africa

By Sam Mednick, Adrienne Surprenant and Sylvie Corbet

Relatives of families struggling after Cyclone Chido ripped through the French island territory of Mayotte expressed helplessness Wednesday, a day before France’s president and another 180 tons of aid were expected to arrive.

Some survivors and aid groups have described hasty burials, the stench of bodies and the devastation of precarious informal settlements whose population of migrants makes it even more challenging to determine the number of dead.

“A catastrophe of exceptional intensity,” French authorities said in an update Wednesday. “The island is devastated.” It noted 31 confirmed deaths but said the Muslim practice of burial within 24 hours could mean the real toll is quite different.

Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean off Africa’s east coast, is France’s poorest territory and a magnet for migrants hoping to reach Europe. Already, France’s interior minister this week has proposed cracking down.

The cyclone on Saturday was the deadliest storm to strike the territory