French Prime Minister François Bayrou believes dozens of people died when Cyclone Chido hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on December 14, instead of thousands as some feared.
Bayrou told BFMTV that he thinks “the alarm and sometimes the alarming numbers put forward will not be reflected in reality”.
The number of confirmed deaths in Mayotte so far is 35 but, after the storm, local premier François-Xavier Bieuville fears “it will be a few hundred” and could reach thousands.
The manager told France Info radio on Tuesday that the investigation in this area is progressing well “which allows us to think that we will confirm this number of 35”.
Defending his first words, Bieuville insisted that “I was never worried, I could not give the number of victims”.
Officials said it was difficult to determine the death toll following the disaster in the past 10 days, due to the fact that many areas of Mayotte were inaccessible and that the dead were buried within 24 hours in accordance with Islamic customs.
There is also uncertainty about the actual population of Mayotte, a French Indian Ocean territory.
It officially has a population of 320,000, but authorities estimate that as many as 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented migrants may also live there.
“I think [the number of dead] it will be a bunch and not thousands,” the prime minister told BFMTV on Monday night.
The archipelago is one of the poorest areas in France, and most of its inhabitants live in shantytowns.
Cyclone Chido was the worst typhoon to hit the area in 90 years, bringing winds of up to 260 km/h (160mph) and flattening areas where people live in metal-roofed shacks.
France observed a national day of mourning following the storm on Monday. President Emmanuel Macron visited the area last week, and was bewildered by angry locals demanding more aid to the devastated areas.
Some survivors went for a week without water, electricity or electricity.
Authorities restored water to key areas in the area on Tuesday, Bieuville said. “Even this water is still a bit difficult to bring, our residents have water.”
He also said that there is no longer a shortage of fuel and that cars can be filled.
Earlier, the prime minister had said that the field hospital would also be operational on Tuesday morning.
Cyclone Chido moved to the African continent after hitting Mayotte, killing 120 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.
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