Historical disasters

We will talk about 3 historicals cyclones of our country and about the last cyclone:
Hyacinthe(1980)
Firinga(1989)
Gamède (2006)
Carlos(2017)

- Hyacinthe in 1980 :

In 1980, Hyacinthe marks reposts by his chaotic trajectory during 2 weeks.The depression passes several times stagnates on the same time. The cyclone went through three time very close to the Island . it is still low intensity during its first passage the 18th january. It is then only a tropical disturbance.Hyacinthe then evolves into tropical cyclone . He made a loop and returned in the direction of the island.And passes in the south west of « La pointe des galets » before it go away by the East. Then the third passage took place after a new loop, Hyacinthe passes too near of the reunion Island..Hyacinthe has plunged Réunion Island under waters during these 2 weeks and killed 25 people. For twelve days, the circulation of the storm produced cloudiness and thunderstorms over Réunion. The cyclone even beat several international records of precipitation, since the island remained 12 consecutive days in the rain generating up to 5181mm of precipitation.

-Firinga in January 1989

Firinga was on the Island in the night of the 29th to the 30th January 1982 . The suth of the island was more touched (affecting) with winds reaching ; 216km /h in Sait-Pierre . The overfloxing of rivers inflated by rains extracted and destructed a lot of houses , roads and trees .

The balance sheet was tree missing people , 52 wounded , and thwo deaths.The cyclone Firinga at night from Sunday, 29 till Monday, January 30th, 1989 transformed the South of the island into a vast torrent of mud. In the Plaine des Cafres he(it) fell 700 mm of water within 24 hours

-Gamède in February 2006

The tropical cyclone GAMEDE will stay in annals by its extremely size and its trajetory which made him approach itself twice coast from us . So Reunion island beat , 27 years after HYACINTH , its own worl records of precipitation during 3 at 9 days .

GAMEDE, classified intense tropical cyclone during its maximal phase, stayed at 400 km of Reunion during almost 4 days, with an extremely vast sphere of influence in term of winds and precipitation. Winds were certainly strong on a long , but did not have of very exceptional nature (167 kph in Bellecombe , 163 kph in la Plaine-des-Cafres, 140 kph to Gillot). On the other hand, rains, although not having known extreme peaks of intensity, were very regular and very plentiful in all the tops of the island, producing by accumulation of the even exceptional remarkable blades of water on durations of one in several days .

After the first passage of GAMEDE , we could already make a first balance assessment : - A badly wounded person. - The destruction of the bridge(deck) of the river Saint-Etienne which connects(binds) Saint-Louis and Saint-Pierre , following the break of a natural roadblock . The southeast cut in two. It is the strong image which will stay of this cyclone. - 100 000 homes without electricity, and so deprived of water - 40 000 subscribers deprived of landline telephone - Around thirty submerged radiers - Several landslides - Approximately 250 people accommodated in the municipal centers - A zone flooded to saint-Suzanne

At night of 26 in 27, the meteor decides finally and comes down southward . It makes then a second passage as closely as possible to Reunion at 250 km on the West in the evening of 27. The West of the department is so touched . Except the cyclonic swell, which is then at his/her/its maximum with a 11,7 meter height measured in the Port(Bearing), this second passage generates a little less strong rains . The balance sheet grows heavy: - we regret 2 victims, among whom the one is taken by streams while she tried to cross one radiate by car - the roads of Salazie and Cilaos are cut - several families are evacuated in Mare à Poule d’eau, Ilet Quinquina and la Colline.

Globally, on all the tops of the island, and if we refer to the accumulations on 4 days, the values of the episode GAMEDE are close or superior to the fact than we were able to observe on the occasion of the cyclone HYACINTH . For exemple , in 24 hours : 1628 mm in the Crater Commerson, so approaching the official world record of 1825 mm measured in Foc-Foc with DENISE's passage in 1966. We also raise1489 mm to Hell-Bourg

-The storm ‘’Carlos’’passed as close to Réunion Island in Tuesday 7th February with gusts of winds enter 100 and 130 kph. It touched principally the North and the East of our country Tuesday and the West ans the Southwest in Wednesday. In Tuesday ,the prefect announced the closure of all schools in the Island as a precaution.

So , it rained a lot in somes cities and we had a ‘’Raw vigilances alert’’ because somes rivers like revers Marsoins or Langevin were flooded.

Also , Carlos caused a lot of incidents :

- Trees fell down because of gusts of wind , it provocated some accidents and some

roades were blocked.

- We had some screes who blocked roades too.

-Somes peoples didn’t have electricity because electrics cables were broken .(4000 houses)

- Somes peoples didn’t have water for a moment also , like in La Plaine des Cafres for Example.

Also, the ports were closed because of the swell.

And this cyclone caused some injured peoples by accidents.