MADAGASCAR: Counting the cost of cylcone Manou

JOHANNESBURG, 19 May 2003 (IRIN) - The death toll from cyclone Manou, which battered the east coast of Madagascar earlier this month, has risen to 68 people with 86 injured, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in Antananarivo on Monday. In Vatomandry, a town about 100 km south of Toamasina, at least 19 people are still reported missing and the number of people without shelter now stands at 47,000. Manou made landfall over Madagascar on 8 May, flooding rice fields and disrupting power and communication links. Aid workers in the capital, Antananarivo, said although telephone lines had been restored in Vatomandry, many communities were still isolated. UNDP said essential relief items such as tents, blankets and medicine for malaria and diarrhoea were needed.