Cyclone Gezani: Nature’s Unscheduled Urban Renewal in Madagascar

The Wind That Shook Toamasina

On Tuesday, Madagascar’s eastern seaboard played host to Cyclone Gezani, a meteorological guest with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The city of Toamasina, usually known for its bustling port, found itself abruptly rebranded as the unwilling epicenter of this tempest’s destructive debut. Authorities counted 20 lives lost and 15 still missing, their fates swept away in the cyclonic lottery.

Cyclone Déjà Vu: Nature’s Double Feature

If the name Gezani sounds familiar, it’s because Madagascar barely had time to sweep up after Cyclone Fytia—a storm that had already claimed 14 lives and displaced over 31,000 less than two weeks prior. For context, the last time Toamasina saw winds this fierce, it was still listening to ‘90s pop hits. Cyclone Gezani clocked in at Category 3, with sustained winds at 115 mph and gusts peaking at 168 mph, flinging debris and upending infrastructure with all the decorum of a toddler let loose in a china shop.

🦉 Owlyus flaps in: "Mother Nature’s version of ‘try turning it off and on again,’ but with more flying rooftops."

Metal Doors, Shaken Faith

Madagascar’s citizens are no strangers to cyclones, but even the hardiest doors and windows—fashioned from sturdy metal—trembled under Gezani’s onslaught, according to local accounts. The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management’s visuals painted a familiar tableau: roofs relocated, trees horizontal, walls crumbled, and roads transformed into impromptu canals.

Season’s Greetings from the Southern Indian Ocean

For those still clinging to the notion that this is atypical: the Southern Indian Ocean’s tropical season is in full swing, running from November 1 to April 30. Gezani is, in fact, the third cyclone to make landfall since January 20, a statistic that does little to comfort a country whose infrastructure is fast becoming a collector’s set of ‘before and after’ photos.

🦉 Owlyus hoots: "When your ‘wet season’ comes with a punch card—get your tenth cyclone free!"

The Absurdity of Resilience

As the winds die down, Madagascar faces the familiar aftermath: recovery efforts, rebuilding, and the uneasy knowledge that, in cyclone season, resilience is less a virtue than a recurring requirement. If there’s a silver lining, it might be this: even as buildings buckle and roads vanish, the spirit of survival remains unshaken—unlike everything else.