According to an initial damage assessment report released by Care late Monday, "95 percent of homes" were destroyed in Antalaha, the coastal town where Gafilo touched land on Saturday when it began its devastating sweep across northern Madagascar.

Many of the town's inhabitants were injured when their houses collapsed, Care said.

National radio has said at least seven people were killed by Gafilo's passage, but Interior Minister General Soja was unable to confirm the toll.

"We have sent two planes (Monday) to the towns of Sambava and Antalaha. I cannot confirm the deaths announced on the radio. Another plane will fly over the town of Maroantsetra, which was also apparently hard hit," he told AFP late Monday.

Only larger, sturdier homes in Antalaha were spared by the cyclone's winds, swirling at more than 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, with gusts as high as 180 kilometers per hour, and trees and advertising billboards were ripped up.

Rice paddies on the outskirts of Antalaha were destroyed as was much of the vanilla crop. Northeast Madagascar is known as the island's vanilla triangle, with much of the aromatic pod being grown and processed here.

"There will be no production this year," Ibrahim Dasy, head of Care in Antalaha, told AFP late Monday.

"The situation is catastrophic. It looks like it did after Cyclone Hudah in April 2000."

An official delegation led by Prime Minister Jacques Sylla visited Antalaha late Monday, while another team comprising the interior, defense and health ministers went to Sambava to evaluate the damage and needs of the local population there.

On Monday, the Malagasy National Rescue Centre airlifted sacks of rice and medicine to the two northern towns.

"The people mainly need construction material and food," said Dasy.

An AFP correspondent in Sambava said the cyclone had done little damage to the coastal town. That report was confirmed by a local official.

"The town was flooded on Sunday, but the level of seawater then subsided and people have already returned to their homes," said Sambava town official Jacob Nazir.

At 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) Monday, Gafilo was stationary in the Mozambique Channel, about 120 kilometers (70 miles) off the western town of Maintirano, the weather service said.

Its winds had dropped, but the storm was "regaining in intensity as it came into contact with the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel," said Alain Razafimahazo, head of Madagascar's meteorological service, Monday.

It could then "turn around and hit Madagascar again ... in the Tulear region," in the southwest of the island, he said, adding later Monday that Gafilo was not expected to touch land again before Wednesday.

TERRA.WIRE