Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte with hurricane-force winds, transforming the green landscape to brown as seen in satellite views.
The cyclone’s wrath damaged critical infrastructure and flora, including a 300-year-old baobab, showcasing the storm’s severe impact on both natural and human systems.
Cyclone Chido’s Devastation in Mayotte
On December 14, 2024, Cyclone Chido slammed into the islands of Mayotte, leaving behind widespread devastation. Hurricane-force winds ripped roofs off homes, toppled utility poles, and uprooted trees across this French territory in the southwest Indian Ocean. In many areas, the once-lush, green landscape had faded to a stark brown.
This transformation is clearly visible in satellite images (above) of Mayotte’s main island, Grande Terre. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured one image on December 30, two weeks after the Category 4-equivalent cyclone made landfall. A comparison with an image from two months earlier, taken under normal conditions, highlights the dramatic change.
Vegetation Vulnerability and High Winds
Jess Zimmerman, an ecology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, has extensively studied how hurricanes alter tree composition in the Atlantic basin. Similar damage occurs in other regions impacted by tropical cyclones, including the southwest Indian Ocean. After analyzing these images, Zimmerman pointed out that vegetation damage was particularly severe on the hillsides west of Mayotte’s capital, Mamoudzou.
High winds blow leaves off trees and snap branches, and heavy rain and wind make it easier for trees to be uprooted from wet soils. Trees at high elevations and on steep slopes are more likely to be damaged in storms because they are more exposed to high wind speeds.
Historical Trees Lost and Agricultural Toll
Agence France-Presse reported that during Cyclone Chido, a 300-year-old giant baobab in Mayotte collapsed onto a restaurant, and a 3-meter (10-foot) mound of soil now looms where an acacia tree was uprooted by the storm. Banana trees and other crops were destroyed in the storm, according to a humanitarian assessment, putting the island communities’ food supply at risk.
Chido also damaged infrastructure on the islands, including the airport, hospitals, and roads, disrupting access to electricity, water, and communications. The European Commission’s satellite assessment of cyclone aftermath found much of the damaged and destroyed infrastructure on Grande Terre was in the northeast, where the cyclone made landfall.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
