Cyclone Death Toll in Madagascar Rises to 35
Last update: February 12, 2026
Disclaimer: This website may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click on the link and make a purchase. We only recommend products or services that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers. Your support is appreciated!
Violent winds devastate Toamasina as thousands displaced and homes destroyed.
A powerful cyclone with violent winds has killed at least 35 people and caused widespread destruction in Madagascar’s second largest city, the Indian Ocean island’s disaster management authority said on Thursday as it released an updated toll.
Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday, striking the eastern coastal city of Toamasina with winds reaching 250 kilometres per hour.
The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said it had recorded 35 deaths, while six people remained missing and at least 374 people were injured. More than 8,800 residents have been displaced.
Madagascar’s new leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina called for international solidarity, saying the cyclone had ravaged up to 75 percent of Toamasina and surrounding areas.
Images from the city of around 400,000 people showed streets strewn with fallen trees, roofs torn from buildings and residents wading through floodwaters. Humanitarian workers continued clearing debris blocked roads into the night.
According to the disaster authority, more than 18,000 homes were destroyed and a further 50,000 were damaged or flooded. The storm also caused significant damage in the surrounding Atsinanana region, where post disaster assessments are still under way.
The CMRS cyclone monitoring centre on France’s Reunion island said Toamasina had been directly hit by the most intense part of the storm.
It described the landfall as potentially one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, comparable to Cyclone Geralda in February 1994, which left at least 200 people dead and affected hundreds of thousands more.
Although Gezani weakened after landfall, it continued moving across the island as a tropical storm until Wednesday night.
Forecasters say it could regain cyclone strength over the Mozambique Channel and potentially strike southern Mozambique from Friday evening, an area already affected by severe flooding this year.
Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean typically runs from November to April and usually brings around a dozen storms each year.
