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Madagascar: Damage Assessments Underway after Cyclone Bingiza

   Joe DeCapua  February 15, 2011

   Teams  on foot and in helicopters are assessing the damage done Monday
   in  Madagascar  by  Cyclone Bingiza, a category 3 tropical storm.  It
   may  be  a few days before the full extent of the damage is known, but
   thereâs concern that prime agricultural land may have been hit hard.

   John   Uniack   Davis,   country   director  in  Madagascar  for  CARE
   International,  says,  âThe  cyclone  hit  at 6 oâclock in the morning
   yesterdayâ¦.   Itâs  a  pretty  strong  storm.   It first hit at the
   southern  tip  of  the  Masoala Peninsula, which is a remote area with
   some of the densest tropical forests in Madagascar.â

   Initial  reports say a small village there was destroyed.  No word on
   casualties  there or elsewhere in the country.  Masoala National Park
   in  the  northeast  is  a  large protected area with about 2300 square
   kilometers of rainforest.  Itâs described as sparsely populated.

CARE Madagascar

   A flooded home in Antalaha

   â[The  storm]  didnât  lose any force because it was still mostly over
   water  in northeast Madagascar. And it came back and it apparently hit
   land  a  second  time  about  30 to 40 kilometers next to the district
   center of Manana.

   Learning more

   Uniack Davis says most of the information is anecdotal at this point.

   âThe  national  disaster  risk  management  agency,  along with Careâs
   emergency  coordinator  and  personnel fromâ¦Food for Peace Consortium
   are  doing helicopter over flights (of) the areas in and near the path
   of  the cyclone, trying to get a sense of the percentage of structures
   that are damaged, the level of damage to the structures,â he says.

   Most  of  the  dwellings,  he says, are made from traditional material
   that cannot stand the force of the cyclone.

   âAnd  then  also  look  at  administrative infrastructure â hospitals,
   schools  and  the  like and how much theyâre affected,â he says.  The
   economic  effects of the storm are also being assessed, especially the
   agricultural sector.

   âThe  area  that  was  hit  on  the  northeast  coast is the main cash
   crop-producing area with coffee, cloves and vanilla bean,â he says.

   Assessment  teams  are  expected  to  spend  the  night in the port of
   Antalaha, before heading inland Wednesday.

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