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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\"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.\" <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\"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.\" <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Many people took shelter in larger buildings such as schools, which likely spared their lives. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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Relief groups rush to deliver aid to Vanuatu's cyclone-hit islands; survivors signal for help<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. Continue reading