Tropical cyclone Belal on Reunion: Gabriel Attal convenes the crisis unit in Bovo this evening

Government Alert. Matignon reports that due to the arrival of Cyclone Belal on Reunion Island this Sunday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is convening a crisis group at 7:00 pm at the Ministry of the Interior.

“The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories will go to the Inter-Ministerial Crisis Management Operations Center at the Ministry of the Interior at 19:00” at Place Beauvaux in Paris. “They will take stock of the operations to prevent and prepare for the fight against Cyclone Belal in Reunion,” the Prime Minister’s services are detailed. This crisis center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Reunion is bracing for the passage of Belal on Monday, which could develop into a devastating cyclone and “mark the history” of the French Indian Ocean island, whose population has been told to self-confine since Sunday evening. The prefect of the department, a region of about 870,000 people, declared a red cyclone alert from 20:00 local time (17:00 Paris time).

Closed population

From now until Tuesday morning, “everyone must remain in a safe place,” Prefect Jerome Filippini asked during a news conference. The population must “devote the next few hours to nothing other than preparing for isolation,” in particular by ensuring “a place where we are going to take shelter” and “the availability of our reserves,” the state spokesman insisted.

In a message published on “All means have been mobilized” to help them, added the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, who assured that he would “closely monitor the development of the situation” together with President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

On the same social network, the region’s president, Huguet Bello, called on “the people of Reunion to exercise the greatest caution.” “We have a big test ahead of us,” she said.

Authorities fear Belal, currently a “severe tropical storm” located about 280 km northwest of Reunion, will become an “intense tropical cyclone” on Monday when it passes over the island or its immediate surroundings.

According to Météo France, its winds could be “devastating” and speak of a cyclone “that could leave its mark on the history” of Reunion Island. The island has not experienced a major cyclone for ten years and the passage of Bejisa in the early days of 2014.