Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Earth Science News .




SHAKE AND BLOW
Aid effort kicks in after 'monster' cyclone ravages Vanuatu
By Joshua Kuku
Suva, Fiji (AFP) March 15, 2015


Vanuatu: land of poverty and beauty
Suva, Fiji (AFP) March 15, 2015 - The south Pacific nation of Vanuatu hammered by Super Cyclone Pam is an archipelago of more than 80 islands known for their tropical beauty, active volcanos and rural poverty.

LOCATION: The archipelago stretches across about 800 kilometres (500 miles) of the South Pacific, closer to Australia than Hawaii. About 65 of the islands, which are mountainous and volcanic, are inhabited.

POPULATION: Approximately 267,000 according to 2014 figures, with 98 percent ethnic Ni-Vanuatu. The population is largely Christian, with the majority Protestant and 12 percent Roman Catholic. The capital Port Vila, on Efate island, has a population of about 45,000.

ECONOMY: Largely rural. As much as 80 percent of the population is involved in small-scale farming. Fishing, offshore banking and tourism are the other principal revenue sources. The country is reliant on Australia and New Zealand for foreign aid.

Total GDP in 2013 was a tiny $828 million. Per capita GDP in 2013 was $3,276, according to World Bank figures.

ENVIRONMENT: Extensive coral reefs, one of the main tourist attractions. The islands are volcanic, with Yasur being an especially active volcano. The islands are in the tropical cyclone belt from January to April and have also been subjected to tsunamis and minor earthquakes related to volcanic activity.

Deforestation is a problem. Less than half of the rural population has access to reliable drinking water and another 40 percent only has access to a system that requires repair, according to the aid group Oxfam.

Aid began arriving in Vanuatu Sunday as the tiny Pacific nation struggled to uncover the devastation wrought by what relief workers warned could be one of the worst storms to ever hit the region.

The official death toll in the capital Port Vila stood at six, although experts said this was likely a fraction of the fatalities nationwide after reports entire villages were "blown away" when the cyclone swept through.

Communications were still down across most of the archipelago's 80 islands, although the airport in Port Vila reopened with limited facilities to allow in much-needed aid.

Two Australian airforce planes landed with food, shelter and medicine while a New Zealand military aircraft also arrived loaded with eight tonnes of tarpaulins, water containers, chainsaw packs and generators.

Commercial flights were scheduled to resume on Monday.

The government said it was still trying to assess the scale of the disaster unleashed when Super Cyclone Pam, a maximum category five system, vented its fury on Friday night, with winds reaching 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour.

The UN had unconfirmed reports that the cyclone had killed 44 people in one province alone and Oxfam said the destruction in Port Vila was massive, with 90 percent of houses damaged.

While the focus was on Vanuatu, Tuvalu -- some 1,550 kilometres (960 miles) to the northeast -- also saw thousands forced from their homes.

"This is likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific, the scale of humanitarian need will be enormous... entire communities have been blown away," said Oxfam's Vanuatu director Colin Collet van Rooyen.

Vanuatu Red Cross president Hannington Alatoa said: "Effectively the whole country... is flattened."

- 'A monster' -

Pictures from Port Vila showed streets littered with debris, cars crushed by trees, buildings blown to pieces and yachts washed inland.

Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale described the storm as "a monster that has devastated our country", his voice breaking as he described Port Vila's devastation.

"Most of the buildings have been destroyed, many houses have been destroyed, school, health facilities have been destroyed," he told the BBC from Japan, where he was attending a disaster management conference when the cyclone hit.

Vanuatu police commissioner Colonel Job Esau said some areas of the capital -- such as shopping districts and the waterfront -- had been deemed off-limits to try to stop looting through the night.

Ivan Oswald, an Australian who has lived in Vanuatu for 13 years, said he had seen "opportunistic looting" of houses and boats.

"It's a sad thing... I've seen some people running around and started looting. Resorts are being pilfered. It's just getting a bit lawless at the moment," he told AFP by phone.

"People are behaving differently. Some are fixing things, some are unable to, they are just a little bit shell-shocked."

UNICEF spokeswoman Alice Clements described "15-30 minutes of absolute terror" as the cyclone barrelled into the island, as the agency launched an appeal for $2 million of aid.

"People have no water, they have no power, this is a really desperate situation right now. People need help," she told AFP.

World Vision spokeswoman Chloe Morrison said the situation also appeared grim for outlying islands in the nation of around 270,000, with homes decimated on the main island Efate which includes the capital.

"We're seeing whole villages and houses just blown away," she said.

- 'No water' -

Despite the problems, relief began to trickle in to Vanuatu, a day after President Lonsdale made an emotional call for international aid.

World leaders, including Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the European Union, pledged relief as workers on the ground warned the death toll could rise because of poor food and water supplies.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the fund stood "prepared to assist Vanuatu with quick, unbureaucratic steps in dealing with the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe and rebuilding the economy".

In Rome, Pope Francis at his weekly prayers pledged his "solidarity with the people of Vanuatu... I pray for the dead, the injured and the homeless".

The Fiji-based head of delegation for the Red Cross in the Pacific told AFP she had spoken to a light aircraft pilot who flew Sunday to the southern island of Tanna, home to 34,000 people.

"He said all the corrugated iron structures he saw in the western part of Tanna were destroyed and all concrete buildings were without roofs," Aurelia Balpe said, adding that there were unconfirmed reports of two dead.

"Shelter and food are the major issues," she added. "We are still struggling to understand the number of casualties."

Save the Children's head of humanitarian response Nichola Krey raised fears of food shortages in the subsistence economy and said conditions in evacuation centres were challenging.

"Many of the evacuation centres have lots of women and young children sleeping cheek-by-jowl, so health and protection will by key in the coming weeks," she said.

New Zealand also flew supplies to the Pacific island of Tuvalu, where Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga said 45 percent of the 11,000 population had been displaced.

Other islands, including the Solomon Islands and Kiribati were both battered by the storm, although not to the extent of their neighbour.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





SHAKE AND BLOW
Tuvalu among other Pacific nations also battered by cyclone
Sydney (AFP) March 15, 2015
Nearly half the population of Tuvalu have been severely affected by the devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga said Sunday, with other Pacific island nations also taking a hit. While the focus has been on devastation in neighbouring Vanuatu, Tuvalu - a grouping of nine coral atolls with a population of less than 11,000 - is also struggling to cope, he told Radio N ... read more


SHAKE AND BLOW
Bangladesh uses SERVIR for flood warning system

14 million children pay price for Syria, Iraq conflicts: UNICEF

UN disaster meeting opens in tsunami-hit Japan

Japan marks 4th anniversary of quake-tsunami disaster

SHAKE AND BLOW
New preschool lesson teaches programming theories

German govt okays bill to boost electronic appliance recyling

Researchers develop 'visual Turing test'

Understanding The Electromagnetic Environmental Effects On Space Systems

SHAKE AND BLOW
New research reveals low-oxygen impacts on West Coast groundfish

Marine biodiversity isn't as great as scientists thought

A sea change for ocean resource management

Tracking sea turtles across hundreds of miles of open ocean

SHAKE AND BLOW
More giant craters spotted in Russia's far north

Methane in Arctic lake traced to groundwater from seasonal thawing

Eastern, High Arctic regain sea ice during cold winter

Permafrost's turn of the microbes

SHAKE AND BLOW
'Low risk' bird flu outbreak at Dutch farm: official

Dartmouth-led team identifies circadian clock gene that strengthens crop plant

Early herders' grassy route through Africa

Chinese cyber-dissident takes farmers' land fight online

SHAKE AND BLOW
Aid effort stepped up after monster Vanuatu cyclone

Tuvalu among other Pacific nations also battered by cyclone

Eruption of Hunga Tonga volcano forms new island

Airport shut as Costa Rica volcano spews more ash

SHAKE AND BLOW
SA mercenaries in Nigeria: apartheid-era veterans still finding work

US strike targets Shebab militant in Somalia

UN black-lists seven DR Congo officers

Sierra Leone war criminal returned from Rwandan jail

SHAKE AND BLOW
Brain waves predict risk of insomnia

Epoch-defining study pinpoints when humans came to dominate planet Earth

Early humans took to the rainforests sooner than previously thought

Amid chaos of Libya, newly unearthed fossils give clues to our own evolution




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.