MAMOUDZOU, Dec 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The annual rainy season is already battering Mayotte, but the French Indian Ocean archipelago has barely managed to patch up homes and buildings that Cyclone Chido devastated a year ago.

At a restaurant on the seafront in Mamoudzou, Mayotte's capital, waitress Meli Razafindrasoa said she was happy to see some customers returning after the most destructive cyclone in 90 years.

But she said she still had not received any insurance money to repair her home after the storm, which killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and half the coral surrounding the main island.

"We lost the windows and a door on the house in the cyclone," she said. "We repaired them ourselves but every time it rains, the bedrooms are flooded.

"I'm very scared there will be a new cyclone."

The rainy season is already making its mark.

"The last time, there was a lot of wind and rain," Razafindrasoa said, adding her children are still "in shock" from Chido.

The scars are everywhere around the French territory, where more than two-thirds of the population of more than 350,000 people live below the poverty line.

Piles of rubble fill the streets even in the more elegant districts of Mamoudzou.

- 'Nothing's been done' -

Metal frames, plaster board and wooden planks were piled near an apartment block that was built only five years ago, but still suffered major damage in the cyclone on December 14 last year.

The roof was torn off and the top-floor apartments destroyed.

Anli, a man who lives on the ground floor, said the rainwater pours in through his ceiling.

"Nothing's been done," he said, asking to withhold his surname for fear of repercussions.

French authorities made sure high schools were quickly rebuilt after Chido, but many homes and other public buildings are still waiting to be properly repaired.

The Foundation for Housing, a non-governmental organisation, estimates that about 60 percent of Mayotte's buildings were destroyed or damaged.

Ahmed Ali Mondroha, head of the Societe Immobiliere de Mayotte, a major housing provider, said that of 1,600 homes it rents out, about 500 have been repaired and 600 are still to be finished.

He said that building companies do not have enough materials and prices have "exploded" since the cyclone.

According to Julian Champiat, president of Mayotte's building federation, it now takes four months to get materials into the island against two months before Chido.

Customs clearance takes longer because of the huge number of containers in the main port, Longoni.

- 'My office is unusable' -

The cyclone also hit the economy and companies say they do not have spare cash.

"The economic fabric is very fragile," said Fahardine Mohamed, head of the Mayotte branch of MEDEF, France's main employers' federation.

He said funds were also at a "low point" in the public sector, which makes up about 70 percent of Mayotte's economy.

Local authorities, who play a key role in the economy, are struggling to get back on their feet.

The town hall in central Mamoudzou had part of its roof ripped off by winds of 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour, and some parts of the building cannot be used.

A worker at a nearby local government building told a similar story.

"My office is unusable. There are water leaks everywhere, and when it rains the electricity stops," they said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Nothing's been fixed. The authorities have no money."

The housing foundation said that, with the new rainy season revving up, thousands of people in Mayotte do not have "a dignified and decent" home to go to.