Hundreds of thousands of people on France's Indian Ocean island of Reunion were confined to their homes on Monday as the eye of cyclone Belal hit the northern part of the territory, leaving one person dead.

Cyclone Belal hit Reunion, one of France's overseas territories, on Monday, moving in from the northwest packing "extreme winds", of up to 200km/h according to weather forecaster Meteo-France.

The damage so far appears to be "less cataclysmic" than feared, according to the island's prefect Jerome Filippini.

Thirteen percent of households have been deprived of electricity and some 35,000 people have no water supply, said a statement by the prefecture, adding that no vital infrastructure had been impacted.

Preparedness

In preparation for gusty winds that were expected to exceed 250 kilometres per hour in the highlands, authorities had hoisted the violet-level alert, indicating imminent danger, at 6:00 am (0200 GMT) on Monday.

This put all 870,000 inhabitants, including the emergency services, on strict lockdown. Even security forces were prohibited from moving.

Authorities urged islanders to stock up on food and water and stay indoors for 36 hours. They were told not to leave home "for any reason", unplug all devices, not use tap water and only use the telephone for an emergency.

Six emergency health centres were set up for people requiring treatment, in addition to the 142 accommodation centres across the country for people to use in the event of flooding.

In the island's main town of Saint-Denis, around 20 homeless people were taken to a shelter.

One homeless person, who had not taken shelter, died as a result of the storm in the western settlement of Saint Gilles, the prefecture said.

Cyclone 'not over'

At 1:00 pm local time the highest-level alert was downgraded to red, allowing emergency and security services to circulate and evaluate the damage. The population, however, is still confined.

The last major cyclone to hit Reunion was in 2014.

Tropical cyclone Batsirai batters France's Reunion Island

But speaking about the dangers of the current storm, authorities evoked Cyclone Firinga in 1989, which destroyed hundreds of homes and dumped record-breaking rain.

Meteo-France warned of a possible "lull" as the eye of the storm tracked over the island, but added, "this should not be understood as the end of the cyclone".

"Quite the opposite, as the winds will pick up again in completely different directions," said Celine Jauffret at the forecasting service.

Meanwhile, nearby Mauritius island was bracing for the storm.

The Mauritius Meteorological Services said in a statement that a cyclone warning level three (out of four) was in force and advised the public to stay in a safe place, with "torrential rain conditions" expected in the coming hours.

(with newswires)

Originally published on RFI