‘It’s a scene of utter destruction’

TANNA – The first aid planes arrived to find scenes of utter destruction on the Vanuatu island of Tanna, where residents are in desperate need of emergency supplies four days after taking a direct hit from Cyclone Pam.

Entire villages were destroyed on the 550sq km island. Concrete structures have been flattened and trees uprooted.

Villagers in the middle of Tanna had huddled together as the cyclone bore down, running from house to house as each one was destroyed.

Rosaline Umpkon, who is six months pregnant, told the Herald: “I felt physically heavy. I couldn’t run. My stomach was very, very sore. I thought I was going to die.”

Her house is now a pile of rubble.

One villager said she cried for two days after her house was destroyed.

Telecommunications were still down on the island last night with only satellite phones working.

Aid workers from World Vision, Red Cross and Tear Fund were among those who arrived on Tuesday.

Kiwi Tear Fund worker Andrew Finlay said: “This is definitely the worst disaster and cyclone to hit Vanuatu. I’ve been talking to people who were here for Cyclone Uma in 1987 and this is worse. We were talking to people who thought this is the end, they were running from one house to the next.”

He said the island was “looking at a few years” before agriculture would be back up and running.

World Vision director in Vanuatu Mike Wolfe said Tanna “was a scene of utter destruction”.

“Just severe devastation everywhere you looked. The trees were stripped bare, broken branches everywhere, and many of the homes we saw were completely destroyed.”

Peter Lawther, New Zealand Red Cross shelter specialist, said concrete structures such as schools and some homes were destroyed.

The delivery of desperately needed emergency supplies was delayed yesterday as two New Zealand Air Force relief flights bound for Vanuatu were forced to turn back to Auckland due to technical problems.