Réunion, Feb. 28, 2025 - French authorities said at least three people were killed when Cyclone Garance slammed the Indian Ocean island of Réunion with violent winds and torrential rain.
The storm brought winds above 200 kilometers per hour and forced residents to stay indoors as emergency teams began assessing the damage. Police said they had confirmed three fatalities but did not immediately release details about how the people died. The report showed how quickly the cyclone moved from a weather warning to a major humanitarian problem for the island.
The scale of the disruption was severe. Authorities said 847 people sought shelter and 54 others were evacuated because of flood or landslide risk. Roughly 182,000 people were without power and another 171,000 lost access to drinking water. The damage included roofs, doors and windows torn away from buildings, while tarpaulins were being rushed to the hardest-hit areas in the island’s east.
Meteorologists recorded wind gusts of 214 kilometers per hour at Réunion’s main airport. That figure underscored why the highest-level purple warning was lifted only after the storm had passed the island’s immediate peak, allowing rescue services to move in while a red warning remained in place. Residents were still being told to stay home because heavy rain and strong winds were expected to continue.
The storm also reminded French authorities how exposed the region can be to intense tropical systems. The island lies southeast of Mayotte, which suffered catastrophic damage from Cyclone Chido only months earlier. The AP report noted that local officials in Mayotte had already confirmed 40 deaths and warned that more victims might still be found.
Cyclone Garance did not simply bring an afternoon of bad weather. It disrupted water systems, electricity, housing and movement across one of France’s overseas territories. Even before the final assessment of damage, the basic picture was clear: a small island had been hit by a powerful storm with a fast-rising toll in lives and critical services.
The island’s emergency picture also showed how quickly a cyclone can overwhelm basic services. Losing electricity and clean water on a territory-wide scale creates problems well beyond the hours of the storm itself, from spoiled food to communications failures and pressure on emergency shelters. That helps explain why authorities moved quickly to open refuges and evacuate people at flood and landslide risk.
Réunion’s experience echoed the wider problem facing many Indian Ocean islands: short warning windows, limited escape routes and infrastructure that can be vulnerable to roof damage and flooding. The report did not describe a full recovery timeline, but it made clear that even after the worst winds passed, the island still faced a day of rescue, repair and assessment.
The event also illustrated how quickly a cyclone can become a public utilities crisis. Water loss on the scale reported in Réunion is especially disruptive because it affects hospitals, shelters and basic cleanup, not just household comfort. In a storm with torn roofs and flooded neighborhoods, the absence of water can slow every part of recovery.
Authorities did not yet have a complete casualty breakdown, but the confirmed fatalities were enough to show that the event had crossed the threshold from severe weather into a major emergency. The island’s red warning and shelter figures suggest that the immediate priority was still protection of residents before full rebuilding could even begin.
