Thousands are feared dead after Cyclone Chido hit the French offshore island of Mayotte

Rescuers were scrambling on Monday to reach the remote French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean after the archipelago destroyed by Cyclone Chidothe worst storm to hit the area in nearly a century.

While the death toll stands at 14, officials in Mayotte say they fear hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed by the storm in the densely populated area, which is home to about 300,000 people, according to the Associated Press.

French authorities said entire neighborhoods – many of them home to poorly constructed shantytowns – had been destroyed, and public infrastructure including airports and hospitals badly damaged, the AP reported. Damage to the airport's control tower means that only military planes can land in Mayotte, making rescues difficult. It is reported that electricity has been cut off in all these islands.

Rescue workers, soldiers, medical personnel and supplies were sent from France, as well as from the nearby French region of Reunion. Mayotte is considered the poorest area that falls under the sovereignty of any country of the European Union, but it still attracts a large number of economic migrants from neighboring countries that are very poor, due to the French welfare system used there.

The French Red Cross told CBS News partner network BBC News that about 100,000 people live in slums in Mayotte, and that most of those have been destroyed by Chido.

The typhoon season in the southwest Indian Ocean began in early December, and Chido hit Mayotte on Saturday as a powerful storm – equivalent to a Category 4 storm, the BBC reported. It landed on Madagascar's largest island, south of Mayotte, late Sunday.

The BBC reported that Chido may be stronger due to climate change. The BBC said that, although the number of annual cyclones has not increased in recent decades, many of them have been more intense, possibly because the warm air and ocean waters provide the ideal conditions for large storms to develop.