Cyclone Pam: Rescue teams reach cyclone-stricken Vanuatu islands
International aid agencies began emergency flights this morning to some of the remote outer islands of Vanuatu. Report by Andrea Lilly.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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."
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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...
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"Devastating": Cyclone flattened landscape in Vanuatu's outer islands
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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."
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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.
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Relief groups rush to deliver aid to Vanuatu's cyclone-hit islands; survivors signal for help
Cyclone Pam #39;devastates #39; South Pacific islands of Vanuatu YouTube
A tropical cyclone has smashed into the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu and is believed to have caused widespread destruction. Winds beginning to drop on Saturday, gradually revealing...
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Cyclone Pam devastates Pacific islands of Vanuatu | Channel 4 News
Cyclone Pam could have wiped out entire villages in Vanuatu, in what could be one of the worst disasters in Pacific history. Unconfirmed reports suggest dozens of people could have died when...
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Cyclone Pam devastates Pacific islands of Vanuatu | Channel 4 News - Video
Dezine ft. GopuBoy - Time Sun I Go Down [Solomon Islands Music 2015]
Dezine ft. GopuBoy - Time Sun I Go Down [Solomon Islands Music 2015]
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Cyclone Pam: The aftermath of Pacific islands #39; worst storm in history | Channel 4 News
The impact from a devastating tropical storm will be "the very, very, very worst" in isolated outer islands but damage was still being assessed, Vanuatu #39;s president says. Subscribe to Channel...
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Cyclone Pam: The aftermath of Pacific islands' worst storm in history | Channel 4 News - Video
One of the Pacific Oceans most powerful ever storms Cyclone Pam has devastated the island nation of Vanuatu, reportedly killing dozens, aid officials have said. The United Nations is preparing a major relief operation. Video: REUTERS
Local residents carry their belongings along a road after Cyclone Pam hit, on the outskirts of Port Vila, the capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Photograph: Unicef/Reuters/Handout via Reuters
Reports from the outer islands of Vanuatu on Monday painted a picture of utter destruction after a monster cyclone tore through the South Pacific island nation, flattening buildings and killing at least eight people.
Disaster management officials and relief workers were struggling to establish contact with the islands that bore the brunt of Cyclone Pams winds of more than 300 km/h, which destroyed homes, smashed boats and washed away roads and bridges as it struck late on Friday and into Saturday.
The official toll of eight killed and 20 injured looked certain to rise as reports began to trickle from the hardest hit parts of the scattered archipelago.
Many of the buildings and houses have been completely destroyed, Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said. More than 90 per cent of the buildings have been destroyed.
The president added that climate change was partly to blame for the devastation across Vanuatu.
Oxfam Irelands chief executive Jim Clarken said the damage left in the wake of the cyclone was likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific.
There is no power at the hospital which has also flooded in parts and damage to the state mortuary means a temporary mortuary must be set up quickly, he said.
Port Vila, the capital which took the full force of the category 5 storm, was recently named in the Natural Hazards Risk Atlas as the city most exposed to natural disasters in the world. Due to its location the city faces a combination of risks including earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and tropical cyclones.
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Story highlights Official announces five more deaths, bringing confirmed toll to 11 Vanuatu's President tells CNN the cyclone has set his nation back by years Aid agencies say they fear severe destruction in communities on outlying islands
A wall of water and mud surged through Sam Upan's house, toppling the walls of the neighboring church where he serves as a deacon.
It was midnight on Friday, and he had no choice but to wade out into the gale force wind and darkness.
"The water was up to my waist!" he says.
Upan eventually made it to higher ground, taking shelter on a parked van. Fortunately, he had sent his family away before the storm to a shelter in the center of the capital, Port Vila.
But on Monday, three days after the storm struck, Upan and his daughters sit in the debris strewn rubble of their home. On Sunday, he built a temporary shack for them to sleep under. A bundle of bananas donated by a friend lies nearby in the mud.
It's the only food the family has to eat.
Nearby, Upan's daughter Elsie slowly scrubs mud out of a shirt. Other families all across this tropical town are facing similar difficulties in the aftermath of the storm.
To many Westerners, Vanuatu is a holiday destination boasting crystal blue waters and luxury yachts. But it's also one of the poorest nations in the Pacific, and many of its 260,000 inhabitants live in flimsy houses built of thatch or metal sheets.
Those vulnerable homes were dealt a fearsome blow over the weekend by Cyclone Pam, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall.
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A boy called Samuel kicks a ball as his father Phillip searches through the ruins of their home which was destroyed by Cyclone Pam in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific Ocean on Monday. Photo by Dave Hunt/Pool/Reuters
Cyclone Pam, with winds of more than 185 mph, flattened homes, washed out roads and knocked out power to the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu over the weekend, and relief organizations were rushing to respond on Monday.
Eight people were reported dead, but authorities feared the number would grow as more rescuers searched the islands. About 10,000 people had to evacuate their homes.
Local resident Uwen Garae stands in his home damaged by Cyclone Pam in Port Vila, the capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Photo by Dave Hunt/Pool/Reuters
It was the strongest storm to make landfall since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in 2013.
Military flights from Australia and New Zealand were bringing water, sanitation kits and shelters to the islands. Relief organizations, including Stamford, Connecticut-based AmeriCares, also were mobilizing supplies and medical volunteers from NYC Medics to help.
An aerial view on Monday, shows homes destroyed by Cyclone Pam in Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Photo by Dave Hunt/Pool/Reuters
With 65 inhabited islands, its a real challenge getting supplies to where theyre most needed, said Garrett Ingoglia, vice president of AmeriCares emergency response. Typhoon Haiyan was challenging because it hit a whole series of islands. But this is even more challenging with less infrastructure and more islands, and more population affected.
Children stand in front of debris on a street near their homes after Cyclone Pam hit. Photo by Kris Paras/Reuters
The medics and supply teams were planning to fly to Brisbane, Australia, and figure out how to get to the islands from there, he said. They were bringing medications such as pain killers and antibiotics to help with injuries and prevent water-borne illnesses.
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Photos: Isolated islands thrashed by Cyclone Pam challenge relief efforts
Visiting the Galapagos Islands, which are home to throngs of unique animals, used to be difficult and expensive, but affordable flights from the Ecuadorian cities of Quito and Guayaquil are now available.
The Galapagos are one of the world's main showcases of the drama of evolution, and the Pacific islands, about 1000 kilometres west of the South American coastline, are visited by more than 200,000 tourists a year.
The plants and animals on the archipelago of around 130 islands were able to evolve for five million years without major predators.
Those who want to go hiking amid the booby and albatross nests on otherwise uninhabited islands are best off booking a ship excursion, which can range between $US250 ($A325) and $US800 ($A1040) a day.
But travellers with small budgets can get accommodation for around $US14 ($A18) a night, and can get to see the giant tortoises, seals, pelicans and monster terrestrial and aquatic lizards virtually for free.
Santa Cruz, the most important island for tourism in the archipelago, has a population of the giant tortoises, which weigh up to 300 kilograms and can be well over 100 years old.
Sometimes the animals simply withdraw, emitting a hissing sound and retreating into their shell when a tourist gets a little too pushy and wants to touch them.
The island capital of Puerto Ayora is home to nearly 15,000 inhabitants, more than half of the Galapagos population. In the harbour, seals doze, while water taxis ferry people back and forth in the bay.
Fishing boats, freighters, and high-speed ferries ply the waters, heading to the other three inhabited islands, San Cristobal, Isabela and Floreana, while a number of cruise ships lie at anchor here most months of the year.
Galapagos guides are emphatic in repeating to the guests before they arrive at the nature reserves on the islands: "Nobody may leave the marked path, or touch an animal, or use their flash when taking photos."
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Photos of the South Pacific archipelago ofVanuatu document the utter devastation the islands faceafter category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through late last week. Wind estimates suggest Port Vila sustained gusts up to 90 mph, while some Vanuatu islands sawgustsof190 mph.
At least eight people have been confirmed dead in Vanuatu on Monday morning a number that officials expect to rise over the coming days as rescuers and relief organizationsreach the more remote island locations.
Pam is by far the most destructive cyclone the tiny island nation has ever faced. At its peak, the tropical cyclone had sustained winds of 165 mph, with gusts close to 200 mph. The Fiji Meteorological Service estimated that Pams central pressure sank to an incredibly low 896 millibars the second lowest pressure in a cyclone on record in the South Pacific.
According to Weather Undergrounds director of meteorology, Jeff Masters, Pam was just the secondcategory 5 cyclone to thrash a populated South Pacific island. The only other Category 5 landfall event among the nine other Category 5 storms to affect these waters since 1970 was by the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the basin,Cyclone Zoe of 2002, writes Masters. Zoe made a direct hit as a Category 5 storm on several small islands in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands with a total population of 1,700.
Vanuatu's president says some 90 percent of the buildings in the capital sit damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Pam. (AP)
Scientists at Tropical Storm Risk have analyzed Pams destructive wind field to create an estimated wind gust swath along the cyclones path.The analysis is a real-time estimate that employs wind radius data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in combination with an analytical model to arrive at peak, 3-second wind gusts.
Looking at these estimates, its not difficult to understandhow Tropical Cyclone Pam ravaged three small islands of Vanuatu: Efatehome to the capital of Port Vila Erromango, and Tanna.
The worksuggests that Port Vila endured wind gusts of 80 to 90 mph as Tropical Cyclone Pam tracked south through the islands on Friday. The BBCsJon Donnisondocumented the damage he saw in the capital city:
The sense of devastation is absolutely immense and when you land it doesnt take long for that sense of devastation to increase.
Many family homes have been stripped of their roofs or flattened by very powerful winds and torrential rain.
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Weather Gang: Wind analysis, photos chronicle monster cyclone Pams devastation in Vanuatu
Vanuatu cyclone: First aid reaches islands ravaged by Pam
Tropical Cyclone Pam, a monster storm in the South Pacific, is thrashing the capital island of Vanuatu in the dead of night, in what has turned out to be the nightmare scenario for the tiny...
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Powerful Cyclone Pam Leaves Trail Of Destruction in Pacific #39;s Vanuatu
Powerful Cyclone Pam Leaves Trail Of Destruction in Pacific #39;s Vanuatu Powerful Cyclone Pam Leaves Trail Of Destruction in Pacific #39;s Vanuatu Powerful Cyclone Pam Leaves Trail Of Destruction...
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Powerful Cyclone Pam Leaves Trail Of Destruction in Pacific's Vanuatu - Video