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    Cyclone Giovanna Kills 16 in Madagascar

    By Shawn Humphrey | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Thu, Feb 16, 2012
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
    Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor

    A category four cyclone slammed into the Indian island nation of Madagascar, killing 16 people and leaving thousands homeless, according to a Thursday report from Reuters.

    Here are some of the facts surrounding the humanitarian situation in Madagascar and current relief efforts.

    * Cyclone Giovanna left 11,000 without homes and injured an additional 65 people after the eye of the storm landed on Tuesday just south of the port city of Tamatave, also known as Taomasina. The death toll could rise as the storm continues over the Mozambique Channel.

    * Madagascar authorities had issued a weather alert on Monday warning that the cyclone would strike between Tamatave and Brickaville around 2 am, and reaching the capital of Antananarivo by 9 am AFP reports. Landfall was in the north-central portion of the island and reached an intensity of 111.8 miles per hour.

    * 70 percent of houses were destroyed in Brickaville, a district capital OneWorld.net reported. 60 percent of buildings in the town of Vatomandry were damaged or destroyed as well. Both Brickaville and Vatomandry districts have a combined population of 400,000 people.

    * A separate report from Reuters indicates that authorities ordered people to stay off the roads and told businesses to close during the torrential rains.

    * According to a Thursday news release from the United Nations, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), mosquito nets and medicine are on the way for Eastern Madagascar as soon as Friday.

    * Unicef's press office indicated that five regional technical advisers were sent to support assessment and response, and there are two teams on stand-by in Antananarivo. The non-governmental organization Frere St. Gabriel is activating a water purification plant in Brickaville, while the South Asia Foundation (SAF) is constructing temporary classrooms.

    * Along with providing 10,000 mosquito nets as a malaria prevention measure, UNICEF will focus on emergency water, sanitation, health care, classrooms, and food needs.

    * Electricity and water are out in large parts of the country, but has largely been restored to the areas around Antananarivo that were impacted.

    * Madagascar is often on the receiving end of cyclones and tropical storms, and the storm season runs from November to April. A year ago in February, Cyclone Bingiza killed 14 people and leveled 6,000 homes. Tropical storm Hubert struck in 2010 and killed 83 people, affecting 187,000.

    Shawn Humphrey is a former contributor to The Flint Journal and an amateur Africanist, focusing his personal studies on human rights and political issues on the continent.

     

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