‘Harold’ slams north isles, heads to Fiji
PORT VILA: A deadly Pacific cyclone cut off communication links to Vanuatu’s northern islands yesterday, with aid officials saying they had grave concerns for residents in the remote areas.
Tropical Cyclone Harold, which claimed 27 lives when it swept through the Solomon Islands last week, lashed Vanuatu’s northern provinces overnight as a scale-topping category five super-storm.
Red Cross Vanuatu secretary general, Jacqueline de Gaillande, said the cyclone, packing winds of up to 235 kilometres per hour, brought down buildings and caused flash flooding.
“We cannot say for certain what the damage is because communications are down,” she said, adding that the most recent updates were social media posts from Monday evening.
“They showed a lot of damage but we have no numbers of casualties yet.”
The last category-five storm to hit Vanuatu, Cyclone Pam in 2015, flattened Port Vila, killed 11 people and wiped out almost two-thirds of the country’s economic capacity.
Ms de Gaillande said Vila escaped the worst of Harold but she feared for those in areas further north that bore its brunt.
“In Vanuatu homes are not built very strongly and I’m afraid there will be lots of people who have lost their belongings and do not have a place to stay,” she said
Ms de Gaillande said a complicating factor in relief efforts were travel restrictions imposed to help Vanuatu remain one of the world’s few places with no confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Modelling early yesterday showed Harold continuing to track southeast, passing south of Fiji as a category four today before weakening to category two storm as it brushes Tonga tomorrow.
Fiji issued cyclone alerts for its southern islands yesterday, warning of high seas and gale-force winds.