France’s Macron visits cyclone-wrecked island as residents seek aid: ‘there is nothing’

France’s President Emmanuel Macron travelled on Thursday to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey the devastation that Cyclone Chido wrought across the French territory as thousands of people tried cope without the bare essentials such as water or electricity.

“Mayotte is demolished,” an airport security agent told Macron as soon as he stepped of the plane.

The security agent, Assane Haloi, said her family members, including small children, are without water or electricity and have nowhere to go, after the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Africa on Saturday.

“There’s no roof, there’s nothing. No water, no food, no electricity. We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep,” she said, asking for emergency aid.

Macron went on an helicopter for an aerial appraisal of the damage. He then headed to the hospital in Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, to meet with medical staff and patients.