Rescue workers were rushing on Monday to reach the remote French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean after the archipelago was devastated by Cyclone Chidothe worst storm to hit the region in nearly a century.

Although the official death toll was 14, authorities in Mayotte said they feared hundreds, if not thousands, of people had been killed by the storm in the densely populated territory, which is home to about 300,000, according to the Associated Press.

French authorities said entire neighborhoods - many consisting of poorly built slums - were razed to the ground and public infrastructure, including airports and hospitals, was badly damaged, the AP reported. Damage to the airport's control tower meant that only military aircraft could land in Mayotte, complicating the rescue response. Electricity was also reported to be out across the archipelago.

Rescuers, soldiers, medical personnel and supplies were sent from France, as well as from the nearby French territory of Reunion. Mayotte is considered the poorest territory that falls under the sovereignty of any European Union country, but still attracts a significant number of economic migrants from nearby nations that are even poorer, largely due to the French state welfare system , which applies there.

The French Red Cross told CBS News affiliate BBC News that about 100,000 people live in makeshift slums on Mayotte and that most of them have been completely destroyed by Chido.

The cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean began in early December and Chido hit Mayotte on Saturday as an intense tropical cyclone - the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, the BBC reported. It reached the much larger island nation of Madagascar, south of Mayotte, late on Sunday.

The BBC reported that Chido may have intensified due to climate change. The BBC said that although the number of annual cyclones has not increased in recent decades, most of them have been more intense, possibly because warmer air and seawater provide ideal conditions for fueling larger storms.