There was symmetry to the disasters. Bondo struck in December. Clovis in January, and Gamede the following month, bringing with it the heaviest rains in 27 years. So the landfall of cyclone Indlala in Madagascar on March 15 was almost inevitable, even if the scale of the damage wasn't, writes Xan Rice.
Madagascan authorities said yesterday that 69 people in the north of the island died in the 165mph winds, with 78,000 left homeless. The lives of more than 200,000 people have been affected.
Crops of rice - the country's staple food - and vanilla - its main export earner - were seriously damaged. According to the government, 80% of the total vanilla crop may be lost to Indlala. Aid agencies are already warning of a serious food shortage in the coming months.
There has also been a certain amount of symmetry to the news coverage of the latest disaster. That is to say it has gone virtually unreported in the world's media - including the Guardian - and on blogs, with the exception of a few sites in Madagascar.
When one of the cyclones did make the news pages, it was because a cruise ship carrying 250 elderly Britons on a Saga holiday had sailed through Gamede and had been forced to dock in a remote port on the island.
Response from the donor community has been scarcely better. In February, before Indlala struck, the Madagascan government and the UN launched an appeal for $242m to help cope with the effects of the cyclone damage and a drought that has affected the south of the country. By early March, just $1 million was pledged.
Madagascar may not be fixed to Africa, to which it belongs, or Asia, to which it owes much of its heritage and traditions, but surely that does not mean it should be ignored.
