March 16, 2015: Samuel, only his first name given, kicks a ball through the ruins of their family home as his father, Phillip, at back, picks through the debris in Port Vila, Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam. (AP)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand Relief workers saw a flattened landscape and widespread destruction in their first views of Vanuatu's outer islands Tuesday after struggling for days to assess the areas of the South Pacific nation hardest hit by a fierce cyclone.

Radio and telephone communications with the outer islands were just beginning to be restored, but remained incredibly patchy three days after Cyclone Pam hit. People were expressing their need for help any way they could: flashing mirrors or marking an "H" in white on the ground to signal planes that were surveying the outer islands.

Australian military planes that conducted aerial assessments found significant damage, particularly on Tanna Island, where more than 80 percent of homes and other buildings appeared to be partially or completely destroyed, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

"We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation," Bishop said. "Not only buildings flattened -- palm plantations, trees. It's quite a devastating sight."

Teams of aid workers and government officials carrying medical and sanitation supplies, water, food and shelter equipment managed to land on Tanna and neighboring Erromango Island on Tuesday afternoon, said Colin Collett van Rooyen, Vanuatu director for aid group Oxfam. The two islands were directly in the path of the storm, which packed winds of 168 miles per hour when it hit early Saturday.

An aerial assessment showed extensive damage on Erromango, with communities ranging from 70 percent to 100 percent destroyed on the archipelago's fourth-largest island. On other islands, Collett van Rooyen said plane crews saw people had made big, white "H" marks in multiple villages, and people on Tongoa island flashed mirrors to attract attention.

The destruction on Tanna was significantly worse than in the nation's capital of Port Vila, where Pam destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings, said Tom Perry, spokesman for CARE Australia.

"The airport was badly damaged, the hospital was badly damaged but still functioning ... there's one doctor there at the moment," he said. "It's obviously a pretty trying situation."

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people were confirmed dead, including five on Tanna, lowering their earlier report of 24 casualties after realizing some of the victims had been counted more than once. Officials with the National Disaster Management Office said they had no accurate figures on how many were dead, and aid agencies reported varying numbers.

Read more:

Cyclone flattened landscape in Vanuatu's outer islands

Relief workers tried desperately on Tuesday to reach Vanuatu's remote outer islands that were smashed by a fierce cyclone, as an Australian official reported scenes of widespread destruction.

Radio and telephone communications with the South Pacific nation's hard-hit outer islands were just beginning to be restored, but remained incredibly patchy three days after what the country's president called a "monster" storm.

Australian military planes that conducted aerial assessments of the outer islands found significant damage, particularly on Tanna Island, where it appears that more than 80 percent of homes and other buildings were partially or completely destroyed, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

"We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation," Bishop said. "Not only buildings flattened palm plantations, trees. It's quite a devastating sight."

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people were confirmed dead, including five on Tanna Island, downgrading their earlier report of 24 casualties after realizing some of the victims had been counted twice. Officials with the National Disaster Management Office said they had no accurate figures on how many were dead, and aid agencies reported varying numbers.

The confusion over the number killed reflects the difficulty officials face as they try to deal with a disaster spread across many remote islands with a near-total communications blackout.

Relief workers have been battling poor weather and communications issues for days, hampering much of their efforts to reach the outer islands. A break in the weather on Tuesday gave them a chance to try again, though access remained difficult. Most of the islands have no airports and those that do have only small landing strips that are tricky for large supply planes to navigate.

"There are over 80 islands that make up Vanuatu and on a good, sunny day outside of cyclone season it's difficult to get to many of them," said Colin Collett Van Rooyen, Vanuatu director for Oxfam. "Until today, the weather has been particularly cloudy, so even the surveillance flights would have had some difficulty picking up good imagery."

Teams of aid workers and government officials were planning to fly to the southern islands, which suffered a direct hit from the storm. The teams were expected to meet with local disaster officials and conduct damage assessments, said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, disaster coordinator for the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs office.

Some of the islands were just beginning to get their phone networks running again, and technical crews were en route to set up data and voice satellite communications. Officials hoped to restore communications to the islands within 48 hours, Stampa said.

Read more:

Relief Teams Head to Vanuatu's Cyclone-Hit Outer Islands

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AP) Relief workers rushed to deliver desperately needed food and water Wednesday to survivors living on Vanuatu's outer islands, after a monstrous cyclone wiped out entire villages and flattened vast swathes of the South Pacific nation's landscape.

Aid workers and government officials were planning to send a boat packed with supplies to hard-hit Tanna Island, where aerial assessments showed more than 80 percent of homes or buildings had been partially or completely destroyed by Cyclone Pam.

"There's a landscape of skeleton trees and patchworks of square outlines where houses used to be," said Angus Hohenboken from aid group Oxfam. "It's really quite a saddening sight."

Samuel, only his first name given, and as his father, Phillip, right, stand amongst of their destroyed home in Port Vila, Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam Monday, March 16, 2015. Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale said Monday that the cyclone that hammered the tiny South Pacific archipelago over the weekend was a "monster" that has destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital and has forced the nation to start anew. (AP Photo/Dave Hunt, Pool) (Dave Hunt/AP)

Lack of food was a growing worry for those who survived the storm, which packed winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour when it struck Saturday.

"Everyone in Tanna and other islands in the south, they really live subsistence lives, so they grow what they need for a short period. ... And the reality is that much of that would have been washed away by this storm," said Tom Perry, spokesman for CARE Australia. "That's a grave concern because we desperately need to get food to people soon."

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people were confirmed dead, including five on Tanna. Officials with Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office said they had no accurate figures on how many were dead, and aid agencies reported varying numbers.

Many people took shelter in larger buildings such as schools, which likely spared their lives.

Aid workers carrying medical and sanitation supplies, water, food and shelter equipment finally managed to reach Tanna and neighboring Erromango Island, after being stymied in their efforts for days by poor weather and a breakdown in communications. The two islands were directly in the path of the storm.

Samuel, only his first name given, kicks a ball through the ruins of their family home as his father, Phillip, at back, picks through the debris in Port Vila, Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam Monday, March 16, 2015. Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale said Monday that the cyclone that hammered the tiny South Pacific archipelago over the weekend was a "monster" that has destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital and has forced the nation to start anew. (AP Photo/Dave Hunt, Pool) (Dave Hunt/AP)

Read more from the original source:

Cyclone flattened the landscape in Vanuatu's outer islands

A woman holds her three-year-old outside their damaged home as nightfalls after Cyclone Pam in Tanna, about 200km from Port Vila, capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, March 17, 2015. REUTERS

PORT VILA, Vanuatu -- Relief workers saw a flattened landscape and widespread destruction in their first views of Vanuatu's outer islands Tuesday after struggling for days to assess the areas of the South Pacific nation hardest hit by a fierce cyclone.

Radio and telephone communications with the outer islands were just beginning to be restored, but remained incredibly patchy three days after Cyclone Pam hit. People were expressing their need for help any way they could: flashing mirrors or marking an "H'' in white on the ground to signal planes that were surveying the outer islands.

Samuel, only his first name given, carries a ball through the ruins of their family home as his father, Phillip, at back, picks through the debris in Port Vila, Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam Monday, March 16, 2015.

AP / Dave Hunt, Pool

Australian military planes that conducted aerial assessments found significant damage, particularly on Tanna Island, where more than 80 percent of homes and other buildings appeared to be partially or completely destroyed, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

"We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation," Bishop said. "Not only buildings flattened - palm plantations, trees. It's quite a devastating sight."

Play Video

The monstrous cyclone tore through the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu packing winds of 168 miles per hour and leaving a trail of destr...

See more here:

"Devastating": Cyclone flattened landscape in Vanuatu's outer islands

EarthWindMap

STORM: Ex Cyclone Pam is "intensifying as a mid-latitude cyclone, and is moving southeast away from North Island."

Many Chatham Islands residents are without power as they weather the effects of ex-cyclone Pam.

Chatham Islands Mayor Alfred Preece said a tree fell on to a power pole at about 2.30pm on Tuesday, affecting one corner of the island.

A civil defence emergency was declared on the islands, home to about 650 people, on Monday afternoon.

Power had been restored to the council office and Emergency Operations Centre(EOC) by 3pm but many residents were still affected by the outage.

The damaged power pole would not be repaired until the storm abated, Preece said.

"Certainly in these conditions we are not encouraging people to get out there right now and fix it."

Wind gusts of up to 140kms and heavy rain continue to batter the island.

"We're all just hunkering down and hopefully this storm abates in the next 24 hours."

Continued here:

Pam causes power outage in Chatham Islands

PORT VILA, Vanuatu Relief workers rushed to deliver desperately needed food and water Wednesday to survivors living on Vanuatu's outer islands, after a monstrous cyclone wiped out entire villages and flattened vast swathes of the South Pacific nation's landscape.

Aid workers and government officials were planning to send a boat packed with supplies to hard-hit Tanna Island, where aerial assessments showed more than 80 percent of homes or buildings had been partially or completely destroyed by Cyclone Pam.

"There's a landscape of skeleton trees and patchworks of square outlines where houses used to be," said Angus Hohenboken from aid group Oxfam. "It's really quite a saddening sight."

Lack of food was a growing worry for those who survived the storm, which packed winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour when it struck Saturday.

"Everyone in Tanna and other islands in the south, they really live subsistence lives, so they grow what they need for a short period. ... And the reality is that much of that would have been washed away by this storm," said Tom Perry, spokesman for CARE Australia. "That's a grave concern because we desperately need to get food to people soon."

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people were confirmed dead, including five on Tanna. Officials with Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office said they had no accurate figures on how many were dead, and aid agencies reported varying numbers.

Many people took shelter in larger buildings such as schools, which likely spared their lives.

Aid workers carrying medical and sanitation supplies, water, food and shelter equipment finally managed to reach Tanna and neighboring Erromango Island, after being stymied in their efforts for days by poor weather and a breakdown in communications. The two islands were directly in the path of the storm.

An aerial assessment showed extensive damage on Erromango, with communities ranging from 70 percent to 100 percent destroyed on the archipelago's fourth-largest island. On other islands, plane crews saw people had made big, white "H'' marks on the ground, and people on Tongoa island flashed mirrors to attract attention, said Colin Collett van Rooyen, Vanuatu director for aid group Oxfam.

On Tanna, the cyclone's fierce winds uprooted water tanks and blew them kilometers (miles) away, said Hohenboken from Oxfam, who traveled to the island. Crops were demolished and electricity was out, as the solar panels that power many homes were destroyed.

View post:

Relief groups rush to deliver aid to Vanuatu's cyclone-hit islands; survivors signal for help