The answer is: to recall Zeitoun’s foreign birth and the universality of struggles against nature
Zeitoun grown up in a coastal town, Jableh, in Syria, his father was a ship captain and when he and his brother drown to be sailor as well, after many year in the sea he stablishes in New Orleans, in the story is describes the great storm that evokes his memory of the island, this shows Zeitoun birth town and also that the nature forces universality.
18.7669° S and 46.8691° E. With a latitude in the south, Madagascar is a country that lies below the equator.
