Relief teams battle to assess cyclone damage

WELLINGTON: Officials struggled yesterday to determine the scale of the devastation caused by a cyclone that tore through the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, with death counts varying in the single digits, but expected to rise once communication with outlying islands were restored.

Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early on Saturday, packing winds of 270km/h, and leaving a trail of destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.

Two people were confirmed dead in the capital, Port Vila, with another 20 injured there, said Paolo Malatu, the co-ordinator for the National Disaster Management Office.

Earlier, Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer, said at least eight people had died. She had also heard reports of entire villages being destroyed in more remote areas.

The confusion over the death toll is due largely to an almost total communication blackout across the country. With power lines and phone circuits down, officials in the capital had no way of knowing what the scope of the damage was on the outer islands, where the storm scored a direct hit.

“We haven’t been able to communicate outside Port Vila,” Malatu said. “The damage is severe and we haven’t had figures of how many houses destroyed… It’s really bad.”

Officials would go to the outer islands today in helicopters, small planes and military aircraft to get a better sense of the destruction, Malatu said.

Spotty

Telephone networks are notoriously spotty in South Pacific island nations such as Vanuatu, particularly after storms. It often takes days before networks can be restored, making it difficult for officials to quickly analyse the extent of devastation following disasters.

Vanuatu’s government has declared a nationwide state of emergency, and Australia and New Zealand have sent in relief supplies. Port Vila’s airport was damaged by the storm and closed for commercial flights, but the first delivery of supplies arrived yesterday from the Red Cross, Malatu said.

Structural damage across Port Vila was extensive, said Isso Nihmei, the Vanuatu co-ordinator for the environmental and crisis response group 350, with the majority of homes severely damaged or destroyed.

Some residents began cleaning up what was left of their wrecked houses and checking on family members. Relief workers, meanwhile, were trying to get victims to temporary shelters as fast as possible.

Hannington Alatoa, the head of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society, said at least half of the population, about 130 000, had been affected. – Sapa-AP