Close to 800,000 affected by cyclone Gafilo

Humanitarian agencies were gearing up on Tuesday to assist close to 309,500 people after a tropical cyclone hit Madagascar twice in the past 10 days. The death toll from Gafilo now stands at 74 and an estimated 200,000 people are without shelter, according to officials. The cyclone made landfall in the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean island on 7 March and tracked northwards. It returned on 9 March and hit the southwest. The toll to date does not include the 113 people still listed as missing after a ferry failed to arrive in port on Monday, a day after Gafilo first hit the island. "Now that we have done an assessment, we can say that the damage from the cyclone is a lot worse than we expected. Some areas have been completely destroyed," UN Country Representative Bouri Sanhouidi told IRIN. Most of the damage was caused by flooding in the wake of Gafilo's 225 km/hr winds. "This raises the possibility of the outbreak of waterborne disease, but a long-term concern is the destruction of crops and increased food insecurity," Sanhouidi added. According to the latest situation report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), roads and bridges connecting the northern port city of Antalaha to outlying villages were inaccessible. Antalaha suffered the brunt of a heavy downpour, where an estimated 35,000 people are stranded south of the city, cut off by floodwater. Large parts of Maroantsetra district in the north were also flooded and crops are expected to be almost completely lost, OCHA said. The region is one of the major rice growing areas producing more than 70,000 mt of rice in a normal year, much of which is exported. In Mahajanga health facilities were functioning and electricity had been restored, but flour was becoming scare. Schools in the area were temporarily closed to house approximately 900 displaced people, but are expected to reopen on 15 March. "The most recent assessment shows that 774,000 people have been affected by the cyclone. However, among those whose lives have been affected there are those who will need shelter, while others are in need of food aid and health intervention," OCHA regional head Chris Kaye told IRIN. Forty percent of these 774,000 people are in need of direct assistance, he added. The UN country team is preparing a Consolidated Flash Appeal, which will be launched later this week and is expected to focus on food aid, shelter, water, sanitation and health, to cover the next three months. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday announced that it was sending a first shipment of 20 mt of food aid to assist up to 1,000 people. WFP plans to move the food, which includes rice and pulses, from its warehouse in Madagascar's southwestern Tulear province by boat within the next day. More shipments of food are scheduled in the coming weeks. "There are thousands of people who need immediate assistance, as well as those who are going to need help for the months ahead," WFP Deputy Country Director Gianluca Ferrera said in a statement. "Much of the country's rice, vanilla, manioc and other crops have been totally decimated and it will take time for these to grow back."