A tropical cyclone killed at least eight people in Vanuatu, UNICEF has confirmed the first casualties from one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall.
Almost no tree could stand straight after Tropical Cyclone Pam hit across the Pacific island nation. Aid workers fear that there are more fatalities. The confirmed deaths came only from the capital, Port Vila.
The spokesman for UN aid agency OCHA said the fact that there is no communication due to the disruption of radio waves has disabled them from knowing the rate of fatalities in other parts of Vanuatu;
“Unfortunately, we have nothing from outside of Port Vila, which is in itself a bad sign,” “We’ve heard there has been quite a lot of destruction up north.”
Described as an unusually powerful hurricane, Pam crashed into Vanuatu’s northeastern coast. In total there are 267,000 people spread across 65 islands, so detailed damage and casualty reports will take some time to come in.
Kiribati and the Solomon islands have already been badly damaged, and now New Zealand’s north island is expecting to be hit by Sunday or Monday morning.
Australia was quick to offer Vanuatu assistance. The country has already warned climate change is taking farmland away, sinking the coastline and slowly drowning the islands, making extreme weather events like this much worse.
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