At least 20 people died in Madagascar when Cyclone Gezani hit the country's second largest city, Toamasina, on Tuesday evening, Malagasy authorities announced Wednesday in a new, higher death toll.

Gusts of 250km/h ravaged this port of nearly 400,000 inhabitants, where fifteen people are also missing and 33 seriously injured, according to this report from the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC).

Videos shared by the presidency show the country's new strongman, Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, wading through the flooded streets of the port city. He had preemptively traveled to Toamasina to show his support for the population, four months after the military takeover.

In the images, this verdant city, also known as Tamatave—its former name under French colonization—appears disfigured. Its streets are littered with hundreds of trees uprooted by the cyclone's most violent winds, the eye of which directly struck the city.

An aerial video shared by the BNGRC shows ripped-off corrugated iron roofs as far as the eye can see and palm trees on Independence Avenue knocked over like mere matchsticks.

"It's total chaos, 90% of the roofs of the houses have blown off, either completely or partially," Rija Randrianarisoa, a regional manager for the NGO Action Against Hunger, told AFP. "The roads are completely inaccessible, due to fallen trees and corrugated iron. Cars can't get through."

The Regional Meteorological Centre specializing in cyclones (CMRS) of the French island of La Réunion mentioned in its bulletin "one of the most intense direct impacts of the satellite era on the Tamatave sector, probably rivaling Geralda".

In February 1994, this cyclone caused at least 200 deaths and left 500,000 people homeless.

While commercial flights to and from Toamasina airport have been suspended, airport management told AFP that humanitarian and military flights were permitted. Fifteen members of the armed forces' civil protection service have been deployed to assist with rescue operations, authorities announced.

The depression weakened significantly upon making landfall but continues to cross the island from east to west. Even though it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it still poses a risk of flooding.

Gezani is expected to regain intensity as it enters the Mozambique Channel and regain cyclone status, according to the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC). It could make landfall as early as Friday evening in the south of this southern African country, which has already been devastated by severe flooding since the beginning of the year.