Several hundred were feared dead in the wake of Cyclone Chido

Hundreds of people are feared dead in Mayotte after the French Indian Ocean region was devastated by a powerful storm.

All residential areas were evacuated when Cyclone Chido brought wind speeds of more than 225km/h (140mph), with the poorest living in the worst-hit shelters.

Rescue workers, including reinforcements from France, scrambled through the rubble to search for survivors.

Widespread damage to infrastructure – with downed power lines and impassable roads – is severely hampering emergency operations.

Some 320,000 people in Mayotte say they are struggling due to lack of food, water and shelter.

Another resident of the capital, Mamoudzou, is waiting in line and said: “We haven’t had water for three days, so it’s starting to get a lot.”

“We are trying to find a minimum of survival, because we don’t know when the water will come back.”

Another resident of Mamoudzou, John Balloz, said he was surprised that he did not die when the typhoon hit.

“It was windy, the wind was blowing, I panicked, I shouted, ‘We need help, we need help. I was crying because I saw the end coming to me,” he said.

Mohamed Ishmael, who also lives in the capital, he told the Reuters news agency that the situation there was “catastrophic” and said: “You feel like you’re behind a nuclear war… I saw the whole place disappearing.”

Another said they used a nearby school to find shelter, adding: “We can still take refuge in our neighbors, and still stick together and be vigilant. We need everyone to hold hands.”

Mayotte’s poor communities, including undocumented migrants who have traveled to French territory in an attempt to seek asylum, are thought to be most affected by the vulnerable state of their homes.

Its population is heavily dependent on French financial aid and has long struggled with poverty, unemployment and political instability.

About 75% of the population lives below the national poverty line and unemployment is prevalent at about one in three.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his thoughts “are with our people in Mayotte, who went through a few terrible hours and, for some, lost everything, lost their lives”.

Although some French aid workers and nurses have arrived in Mayotte, efforts to reach other communities are still ongoing.

Francois-Xavier Bieuville, the island’s manager, told local media that the death toll could rise significantly once the damage is fully assessed. He warned that it would “definitely be a few hundred” and could reach thousands.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is scheduled to visit the island to assess the damage and coordinate other relief efforts, acknowledged the “tremendous difficulty” of the typhoon and confirmed that relief efforts were intensifying.

Cyclone Chido also made landfall in Mozambique, where it brought floods, uprooted trees and destroyed buildings about 40 kilometers south of the northern town of Pemba.

The typhoon caused damage and power outages in the northern coastal provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado on Saturday morning, local authorities reported.

Guy Taylor, spokesman for the aid organization Unicef ​​in Mozambique, said, “we were hit hard in the early hours of today”.

“Many houses have been destroyed or severely damaged, and health centers and schools are no longer working,” he added.

Mr Taylor said Unicef ​​was concerned about “losses of access to critical services”, including medical treatment, clean water and sanitation, and “the spread of diseases such as cholera and malaria”.