Storm set to displace 150,000 in Madagascar: aid agencies

Aid workers yesterday set up emergency shelters and readied search and rescue teams in Madagascar as tropical cyclone Batsirai barrelled towards the island, less than two weeks after Storm Ana killed at least 58 people there.The storm, set to be more powerful than Ana with heavy rainfall and winds up to 200km an hour, is projected to drive up to 150,000 people from their homes in addition to some 130,000 people displaced by the last cyclone.“We are all very nervous as you can imagine,” WFP’s Pasqualina Disirio told Geneva-based journalists by video link from the capital Antananarivo.Some coastal areas have already been evacuated and schools were closed yesterday so that a portion of them can be converted into shelters, she added. Jens Laerke of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said he expected a “significant humanitarian impact” and said that teams were stocking up on supplies and readying aircraft to assess future damage.During the last storm, dozens were killed by landslides and buildings collapsed or were washed away.Batsirai is expected to bring more heavy rainfall with up to 30 centimetres forecast today, and more in mountain areas, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.“If this rain falls on ground already saturated then this increases the risk of flooding,” Clare Nullis told the same briefing, warning of the risks of possible flash floods.Batsirai could yet intensify from a category 3 to category 4 equivalent before making landfall in eastern Madagascar today, she added.