Reunion Islanders Seek Shelter from Oncoming Storm

AFP/APP
Saint Denis: In France’s Indian Ocean island of Reunion, hundreds of thousands of residents are taking shelter in their homes amid a stringent lockdown on Monday. A destructive storm, which has claimed one life, is beginning to tear through the northern part of the island.
Cyclone Belal hit Reunion, one of France’s overseas territories that spans the globe from the Caribbean to the Pacific, moving in from the northwest and packing “extreme winds,” according to France’s national weather service, Meteo-France.
“The eye of the storm is passing along the northern and northeastern coasts this afternoon,” it said in its latest public bulletin.
Belal was not, however, expected to become an intense tropical cyclone or cause devastation further inland, contrary to earlier fears.
“We’re by no means done with this storm, but it’s not reaching cataclysmic levels,” said prefect Jerome Filippini, the island’s top Paris-appointed official.
“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Filippini said, “if Belal is good enough not to bring any bad surprises by tonight (Monday) or tomorrow morning.”