Officials from Metropolitan France on Monday were rushing supplies and rescue personnel to the Indian Ocean department of Mayotte after a fucking monster cyclone with winds upwards of 140 miles per hour thrashed the island over the weekend, with the Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville telling local media the death toll could be “close to a thousand or even several thousand,” on the densely populated and poor island of 320,000 souls, many living in tiny metal shacks, AFP reports.
Complicating matters for a territory with as many as 100,000 illegal immigrants from neighboring African countries is that, according to a local former nurse who spoke with AFP, many people were hiding from relief crews “fearing it would be a trap,” to deport them from Mayotte.