Vanuatu storm damage ‘severe’
Officials struggle to assess toll of Cyclone Pam
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Officials struggled on Sunday to determine the scale of the devastation wrought by a monstrous cyclone that tore through the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, with death counts varying in the single digits but expected to rise once communications are restored with outlying islands.
Packing winds of 168 miles per hour, Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early Saturday, leaving a trail of destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.
Paolo Malatu, coordinator for the National Disaster Management Office, said two people were confirmed dead in the capital, Port Vila, with another 20 injured. Earlier, Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer, said Vanuatu’s disaster response office told her agency that at least eight people died. She had also heard reports of entire villages being destroyed in more remote areas.
The confusion over the death count is largely due to a near-total communications 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. “At this point, the damage is severe and we haven’t had figures of how many houses destroyed. … It’s really bad, it’s really bad.”
Officials were planning to head to the outer islands on Monday to get a better sense of the destruction, Malatu said.
The government declared a state of emergency across the country and Australia and New Zealand sent in relief supplies. The damaged airport was closed for commercial flights, but the first delivery of supplies arrived today from the Red Cross, Malatu said.
Vanuatu has a population of 267,000 spread over 65 islands. About 47,000 people live in the capital.
The cyclone has already caused damage to other Pacific islands, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. Authorities in New Zealand are preparing for Cyclone Pam, which is forecast to pass north of the country on Sunday and Monday.