Trail of damage as Cyclone Donna skirts Vanuatu

The South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu began assessing the damage yesterday after being pounded by destructive winds from Cyclone Donna which brought down houses and buildings. The storm was upgraded late in the day to a category four severe tropical cyclone by the Vanuatu Meteorological Service which warned “damaging gale to destructive storm force winds” would continue to hit Torba province.

The eye of the cyclone veered away from Vanuatu before making landfall but Disaster Management Office director Shadrack Welegtabit said winds in excess of 200 kilometers per hour wreaked havoc in outlying islands. “The cyclone has passed through and we have now started our response, doing an assessment of the damage and what people need,” he said. “It did not make landfall but the gale force winds affected some islands. There was damage to houses and buildings but we haven’t had any reports of injuries.” A curfew was imposed in many of the populated islands on Friday with residents taking shelter in caves and evacuation centers until the storm passed.

Corrine Ambler from the Red Cross told Radio New Zealand they had made radio contact with Torres Islands in Torba where houses were destroyed. “There’s about 1,000 in the affected area and I understand that almost 200 people are taking shelter in a cave in one of the islands,” she said. Although Donna was tracking westwards towards New Caledonia said, the Meteorological Service said it would continue to impact on Vanuatu for another 24 hours. “Heavy rainfall and flash flooding is also expected,” it said in an advisory to the small nation of about 260,000 people. In 2015, when Cyclone Pam slammed into Vanuatu, 11 people were killed and more than 65,000 homes were damaged or destroyed affecting about 70 percent of the population. —AFP