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RELIEF workers reported “widespread devastation” and a “flattened” landscape yesterday after landing on cyclone-hit Vanuatu’s outlying islands of Tanna and Erromango.
Radio and phone communications with the outer islands are just beginning to be restored and remain patchy three days after Cyclone Pam hit the archipelago.
Australian military planes that conducted aerial assessments found significant damage, particularly on Tanna, where it appeared that more than 80 per cent of homes and other buildings had been partially or completely destroyed, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop reported.
“We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation. Not only buildings flattened — palm plantations, trees. It’s quite a devastating sight,” she said.
Teams of aid workers and government officials carrying medical and sanitation supplies, water, food and shelter equipment landed on Tanna and Erromango yesterday afternoon, said Oxfam Vanuatu director Colin Collett van Rooyen.
The islands were directly in the path of the 168mph storm which hit early on Saturday.
Tanna’s destruction was significantly worse than in the capital of Port Vila, where the cyclone destroyed or damaged 90 per cent of the buildings, said Care Australia spokesman Tom Perry.
“The airport was badly damaged, the hospital was badly damaged but still functioning … there’s one doctor there at the moment. It’s obviously a pretty trying situation,” he said.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people had been confirmed dead, including five on Tanna, lowering their earlier report of 24.
by Our Foreign Desk
