Mauritius shut its main airport on Wednesday, while the nearby French island of La Reunion was set to do the same on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Garance was categorised a class 3 cyclone by Mauritius — the second-highest alert level — with gusts of up to 70 kilometres (43 miles) an hour expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mauritius Meteorological Service said the cyclone was 310 kilometres (190 miles) northwest of the island and had become an \u00ab\u00a0intense tropical storm\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cyclone is \u00ab\u00a0dangerously approaching Mauritius and constitutes a direct threat,\u00a0\u00bb it said, adding that flooding was expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Garance was heading east but has curved south to pass between Mauritius and La Reunion, whose government representative said a \u00ab\u00a0red alert\u00a0\u00bb would be declared and the airport closed on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its current trajectory, the cyclone was expected to pass within 50 kilometres of La Reunion between Thursday evening and Friday morning, the prefecture said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weather service Meteo-France warned there could still be a \u00ab\u00a0direct impact\u00a0\u00bb on La Reunion. Earlier it warned of gusts of more than 150 kph on the island’s highest points, accompanied by heavy rain and rough seas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were heavy clouds over La Reunion early Thursday, but no significant rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around midday (0800 GMT) the cyclone was still 300 kilometres away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The red alert will be triggered at 7.00 pm, authorities announced, with the cyclone expected to reach its closest point to the island early Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A red alert measure requires the population to stay indoors and only emergency services can move around the island. Schools were closed from Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thousands of people in La Reunion shopping for basic goods before the expected lockdown, forming long checkout queues in shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0I thought I had plenty of time to do my shopping, but I was wrong,\u00a0\u00bb said one shopper, Franck Vitry, stocking up on bottled water in a supermarket in Port, in the west of the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0It took me 30 seconds to grab the water, and I’ve been waiting in line to pay for 10 minutes,\u00a0\u00bb he sighed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others were loading candles, batteries and canned food into overflowing caddies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00ab\u00a0I bought frozen puff pastry, eggs and sugar so we can bake to keep the kids occupied during the red alert,\u00a0\u00bb said Maryvonne Laurent, 36, shopping in Saint-Denis with her two sons, four and seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fishermen in the nearby port of Sainte-Marie pulled their boats onto dry land and secured nets, while further inland, farmers pulled covers off greenhouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jean-Christophe Hoareau, a farmer in Etang-Sale-Les-Hauts on La Reunion’s southern tip, said he preferred to sacrifice cucumber vines rather than risk his greenhouses being destroyed by gale-force winds. \u00ab\u00a0They’re our main working tools,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous red cyclone alert in La Reunion was issued in January 2024 when Cyclone Belal hit the island, killing four people and causing an estimated 100 million euros ($104 million) of damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Port Louis,\u00a0Mauritius – The Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and La Reunion were on high alert Thursday for an intense tropical storm, Cyclone Garance, labelled a \u00ab\u00a0direct threat\u00a0\u00bb to the tourist destinations. Mauritius shut its main airport on Wednesday, while the nearby French island of La Reunion was set to do the same on Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[2351,2751,1619],"adr_country":[1621],"class_list":{"0":"post-17275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-actualites-fr","8":"tag-cyclone-fr","9":"tag-la-reunion-fr","10":"tag-mauritius-fr","11":"adr_country-mauritius-fr"},"acf":{"post_version":""},"yoast_head":"\n