Cyclone Enawo has killed at least three people and left nearly 500 people homeless after it slammed into the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.
The massive tropical storm packing winds gusting as high as 300km/h struck the northeast village of Ampahana on Tuesday morning.
It had since been downgraded from "intense tropical cyclone" to "tropical storm", with winds gusting at 130km/h, domestic weather bulletins said.
The head of the local weather service, Rivo Randrianarison, said it was one of the country's worst storms in recent years.
"Enawo is of the same intensity as those which have wreaked havoc like Indlala in 2007, Ivan in 2008, Gafilo in 2004 or Giovanna in 2012," he said on national radio.
The government said at least three people were killed when Enawo first struck land on the northeastern coast of the island.
The storm was expected to move south through the island nation for several days, affecting the capital of Antananarivo on Wednesday.
