'Everything Is Gone': Madagascans Face Destitution in Cyclone's Wake

Cyclone Batsirai slammed into the Indian Ocean island late Saturday, battering the southeastern coastline until it moved away late Sunday, leaving 91,000 people with damaged or destroyed homes, according to the state disaster relief agency.

It was Madagascar's second destructive storm in two weeks, after Cyclone Ana killed 55 people and displaced 130,000 in a different area of the country, further north.

The island nation, which has a population of nearly 30 million, was already struggling with food shortages in the south, a consequence of a severe and prolonged drought. The World Food Program said Batsirai had made the situation worse by destroying crops that were just two weeks from harvest.

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