Cyclone not finished killing people

TANNA – Lishie Rossie, who works for Australian charity Live and Learn, said Cyclone Pam probably hadn’t finished killing people.

All medical facilities on Tanna are closed and the local government has advised all patients, no matter what their emergency, to stay home.

“There is no way to treat anyone, Tanna no longer has a hospital,” Rossie told AAP. “Only bore water is drinkable, flowing water sources are far too contaminated.”

Even though locals stockpiled some food, he said they will soon start running out.

“We need to get them food, time is running out,” Lishie said.

Entire villages were evacuated into schools and other strong buildings, but many were ripped apart by the storm.

Local police officer John Maeke says as the cyclone roared right over them, police raced back to their barracks to take cover.

“We just sat there for hours, listening to this bad, dark sound,” he said. “All of us are homeless now.”

Maeke says two women – one aged in her 50s, the other older than 70 – died when they were crushed by the brick wall of their house.

He says another man was crushed to death by a falling tree limb when he tried to rescue his mother, who also died when she was struck by a piece of corrugated iron roofing.

“There was nothing anyone could do, no one has seen a storm like this,” he said. “This is the worst storm of our generation, no one remembers anything worse.”

Lishie said many villages on the southern side of Tanna, and on outer islands like Erromango and Futuna, are yet to even make contact.

The provincial government has sent teams on foot to assess the damage in southern Tanna, but they were yet to return to the provincial capital on Tuesday, two days after they set off.

Many Tanna locals said they feel forgotten by the world because the focus seems to be on Port Vila and towns on the main island of Efate.