Cyclone Belal: red alert, winds at 250 km/h, confinement, crisis unit… Reunion under the threat of a devastating cyclone

L'île de La Réunion est sous la menace d'un cyclone tropical intense ce dimanche 14 janvier. ILLUSTRATION FLICKR

Reunion Island is under threat of an intense tropical cyclone this Sunday, January 14. Its passage is planned "between late night from Sunday to Monday and Monday evening"

Reunion Island was placed on red alert by the prefect because of the imminent arrival of a high-intensity cyclone, Belal, which was expected to hit the island from 8 p.m. local time, declared the Minister of the Interior in a message posted on X – ex-Twitter. "Great caution recommended to Reunion Islanders: do not go out, do not circulate", added Gérald Darmanin.

Possible purple alert

Jérôme Filippini, prefect of Réunion, added on BFMTV that the confinement which will come into force on Sunday evening could last until 2019. until Tuesday morning. "Already we are under the influence of this approaching cyclone, with very heavy rain in certain places, very impressive swells (…) on the coast and a whole bunch of data that justifies the emergency measures we are taking, he said.

He did not rule out a move to purple alert, the higher notch where this time, even the emergency services are not allowed to go out. The interregional director Météo France, Céline Jauffret, said, for her part, that the entire island will be affected and that a deterioration in weather conditions at the very end of the night was expected, even if this forecast could still evolve.

Winds over 250 km/h

"We expect (winds) of the order of 200 km/h on the coast and more than 250 km/h on high habitats", he said -she added, noting that "the level of threat is very significant", unseen in 35 years. "The precipitation will also be intense, reaching 200 to 300 mm in a few hours", she further warned.

Crisis unit in Beauveau

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal convenes a crisis unit at 7 p.m. to the Ministry of the Interior to manage the situation in Reunion. "The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories will provide an update on prevention and preparation operations to deal with cyclone Belal in Reunion", adds the&# 39;entourage of the former Minister of National Education.

Guest of BFMTV, the new government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot announces that "2,000 firefighters are mobilized on site" and "in Hexagon, we have reinforcements that will be available to be deployed once the cyclone has passed".