DOZENS ARE feared dead after a ferocious tropical cyclone suddenly switched direction and smashed through the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, causing landslides, flooding and sea surges and widespread destruction.
Cyclone Pam, one of the worst recorded in the southern hemisphere, is believed to have destroyed entire villages as it swept across the Pacific archipelago with winds of more than 200miles an hour.
Aid workers warned of “complete annihilation” in Port Vila, the capital, where some observers estimated 90 per cent of houses had been destroyed. “It felt like the world was going to end,” Alice Clements, from Unicef, told ABC News.
“It’s like a bomb has gone off in the centre [of Port Vila]. There is no power. There is no water. We are hearing unconfirmed reports of casualties and lots of wounded.”
Officials confirmed that six people died and 20 were injured in Port Vila, as reports from outlying islands indicated 44 others may have been killed. Two foreigners are believed to have drowned after their boat sank but their nationalities are yet to be confirmed.
“We’ve seen villages that have just literally been blown away,” Chloe Morrison, from World Vision, told Fairfax Media.
She said the category five cyclone would have tossed local huts “like confetti”.
The winds cut power and communications in the 83island nation of 267,000 people and left tens of thousands without shelter. Many took refuge in evacuation centres, which were themselves damaged or destroyed.
In Port Vila, witnesses said houses were blown away and cement buildings were destroyed as the cyclone hit around midnight on Friday. The damage is feared to have been far worse in the outlying islands, where many people live in thatched housing.
Isso Nihmei, who works for a non-government organisation in Port Vila, said he tried to rescue three people who later died. “We heard some of the people who were living close. They were shouting and calling us. So once we went down there, we saw this guy who was already dead,” he told ABC News. “There [were] other people on the other side, so we went down to rescue them, but they were really weak. We got them to hospital, but they died in half an hour.”
Charlie Damon, from Care International, in Port Vila, said: “Homes have been blown to pieces, and even evacuation shelters, where people had sought refuge, have been flooded and left exposed. If this is the level of impact in communities where emergency shelters were an option, we are deeply concerned about what has happened in remote communities without them.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it was investigating an unconfirmed report that 44 people had died in the central province of Penama.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Pam was “one of the most intense cyclones ever recorded in the southern hemisphere”.
Vanuatu’s government said the nation had suffered a “calamity” and appealed for international help, although the country’s airport has been flooded, making it difficult for support to arrive.
Britain will provide up to £2million to support international relief efforts, it was announced last night.
Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, said: “It is already clear that there has been wide- spread devastation. Many families have lost their homes and power supplies, roads and other infrastructure have been left badly damaged.”
Vanuatu was colonised by British and French settlers in the 19th century and was subject to Anglo-French administration from 1906 until it gained independence in 1980.
The cyclone caused damage in other Pacific nations, including Tuvalu and Kiribati, and is now believed to be headed for New Zealand, which is braced for heavy rain and flash flooding.
It is expected to pass close to the north-east of the country tonight or tomorrow morning, by which time it will be weakening but still equal in strength to a hurricane.