{"id":23620,"date":"2026-02-11T10:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/tropical-cyclone-gezani-slams-into-madagascar-killing-nine\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:23","slug":"tropical-cyclone-gezani-slams-into-madagascar-killing-nine","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/tropical-cyclone-gezani-slams-into-madagascar-killing-nine\/","title":{"rendered":"Tropical cyclone Gezani slams into Madagascar, killing nine"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Tropical cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar&#8217;s eastern coastline, killing nine people in the Indian Ocean island nation&#8217;s second largest city, as walls of wind and rain left a trail of devastation, authorities said on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Madagascar&#8217;s disaster management office said that 19 people had been injured and nearly 1 500 residents were evacuated as a precaution in a district around the port city of Toamasina after Gezani pummelled coastal communities before sweeping inland.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos as the cyclone made landfall. &#8220;I have never experienced winds this violent. The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,&#8221; said Harimanga Ranaivo.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">It was the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year, 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31 000 people, according to the United Nation&#8217;s Humanitarian Office.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">At its peak, Gezani unleashed sustained winds of about 185 kilometres per hour, with gusts surging to nearly 270 kilometres per hour, powerful enough to rip metal sheeting from rooftops and uproot large trees.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Ahead of the cyclone&#8217;s arrival, officials shuttered schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Madagascar&#8217;s National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management had warned earlier that rising sea levels in Toamasina were already flooding streets.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Homes collapsed under the pressure of the winds, roofs were torn away, walls crumbled and neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">By Wednesday morning, Madagascar&#8217;s meteorological service said Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and had moved westward inland, about 100 kilometres north of the capital, Antananarivo.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,&#8221; the service said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23621,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-23620","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Tropical cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar's eastern coastline","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26530,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23620\/revisions\/26530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}