Farquhar island hard hit by cyclone Fantala: All workers on the island safe |19 April 2016
All buildings on the island have lost their roof or are otherwise damaged and many have been completely destroyed by fallen trees!
This is the dissolute atmosphere on Farquhar as the island was directly hit by tropical cyclone Fantala on Sunday night, with extremely strong winds reaching a record of 345km per hour!
Glenny Savy, chief executive (CEO) of the Island Development Company (IDC) which manages the island, has described the situation as “catastrophic” as he has confirmed that most of the infrastructures including the guest house, workers’ quarters and health centre have been destroyed. The good news is that all of the workers currently on the island are however safe, protected by the anti-cyclone shelter which the IDC built on the island after it had been hit by another devastating cyclone named Bondo on December 20, 2006.
The IDC had as a measure of precaution on Thursday evacuated 20 out of the 34 workers who were on the island. The 14 others were left behind to monitor the situation or are those responsible for essential services on the island. These included four soldiers manning a radar station situated there. It will now be the responsibility of those workers to undertake the first maintenance works and to clear the airport of debris, for air links to resume with the island situated at 770 kilometres to the south east of the main island of Mahé.
“Had it not been for the anti-cyclone shelter, we would have had to evacuate everybody from the island,” Mr Savy has said.
He has further explained that it will not be possible to fly to Farquhar and really evaluate the damage until Thursday. This because the danger is not yet over as the Seychelles Meteorological Services which had raised the highest alert (alert 1) while Fantala was approaching the island, has predicted that the cyclone which is now situated between Farquhar and the island of Astove may come back to 40 to 50 miles off Farquhar tomorrow evening. This climatic situation is eased by an anti-cyclone condition currently over Madagascar.
Though the IDC chief executive feels it is still too early to evaluate the damage caused by Fantala on Farquhar, he believes that this will be well above the sum of R5 million which resulted from Bondo.
In spite of the damage caused to Farquhar, other islands in the area like Astove, Assumption and Aldabra have up to now not been severely touched, even if some heavy winds are still expected there. It will however take some time to evaluate the situation on Providence which was also hit by cyclone Bondo in 2006, as there is currently no one on the island.
Though this time hit by Fantala which the region’s meteorological stations are describing as the strongest cyclone the Indian Ocean has known to date, the Seychelles islands are situated outside what is known as the tropical cyclonic belt, between zero to seven degrees of the Equator. Fortunately for us, the Seychelles’ temperatures (from about 24 to 33 degrees centigrade) are too high and thus represent unfavorable conditions for the development of cyclones.
However, the islands lying south of the archipelago normally experience heavy winds whenever there is a cyclone in the area. Other Indian Ocean islands such as Mauritius, Madagascar and Réunion are the ones most directly hit during the cyclonic season which goes from November to April, period when it is hotter in the southern hemisphere. The region records an average of nine tropical cyclones per year, though not all of them prove to be dangerous. Also, the region’s countries each year in turn provides a list of female names to be given to the cyclones. From Fantala, you would have guessed that it was Madagascar’s turn this year.
Our sister islands however seem to be safe from Fantala’s destructive force, as though described as “extremely dangerous” by the Météo France Réunion office, after may be hitting Farquhar for a second time in the coming 48 hours, the tropical cyclone is expected to change course and lose its intensity.