Hundreds of thousands of people on France’s Indian Ocean island of Reunion hunkered down in their homes under a strict lockdown on Monday as a devastating storm that has already left one dead started to rip through the territory. Issued on: 15/01/2024 – 07:15 3 min Cyclone Belal hit Reunion, one of France’s overseas territories that span the globe from the Caribbean to the Pacific, moving in from the northwest packing “extreme winds”, according to Meteo-France. “The eye of the storm is passing over the Reunion Island, starting from the northern part,” the meteorological service said in its latest public bulletin. It had previously said that Belal is not, however, expected to become an intense tropical cyclone.  “We’re into the hard part,” prefect Jerome Filippini, the island’s top Paris-appointed official, told France Inter. “We will have a difficult and dangerous Monday”. While initial damage was still moderate “one homeless person who had not taken shelter” died as a result of the storm in the western settlement of Saint Gilles, the prefecture said. In preparation for …