Twenty-four people have been killed by Cyclone Pam which tore through Vanuatu, the UN said Tuesday, as the Pacific nation's president pleaded for help to rebuild the archipelago's "completely destroyed" infrastructure.
Aid agencies have warned that conditions are among the most challenging they have faced, with fears of disease rife, and outer islands cut off from radio or telephone contact, with the full scale of the disaster still unknown.
"There are 24 confirmed fatalities," the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a situation report.
The official death toll had stood at six in Port Vila, where the storm damaged up to 90 percent of homes, with the latest figures showing the highest fatalities in the island chain's southernmost province.
An emotional President Baldwin Lonsdale said the need was "immediate" after the storm packed winds of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour, leaving massive destruction on Friday night.
In the capital access to water was partially restored and stores began reopening, but entire neighbourhoods remained without power as aid workers streamed in to take the measure of what many have said might be one of the region's worst weather disasters.
"The humanitarian need is immediate, we need it right now," Lonsdale told AFP on Monday in Japan before flying home, adding longer-term financial support was also desperately needed.
"After all the development we have done for the last couple of years and this big cyclone came and just destroyed... all the infrastructure the government has... built. Completely destroyed.
"We need international funding to (re)build all the infrastructure."
Many world leaders have pledged support. Military planes from Australia, New Zealand and France were arriving loaded with food, shelter, medicine and generators, along with disaster relief teams.
- Thousands sheltering -
The UN said 3,300 people were sheltering at 37 evacuation centres, and that aerial assessments had been carried out by military aircraft.
"Despite reports of severe and widespread damage, Shefa remains the only province declared an emergency at this stage," said OCHA, referring to the region that includes Port Vila.
"Radio and telephone communications with outer islands is yet to be established," it added.
As aid flights continued landing, workers on the ground said there was no way to distribute supplies across the archipelago's 80 islands, warning it would take days to reach remote villages flattened by the storm which hit Friday night.
Oxfam country director in Port Vila, Colin Collett van Rooyen, said a lack of clean water, temporary toilets, water purification tablets and hygiene kits needed to be addressed rapidly.
"Friday night was the first emergency with the arrival of Cyclone Pam, disease will be the second emergency without clean water, sanitation and hygiene provision," he said.
"There are more than 100,000 people likely homeless, every school destroyed, full evacuation centres, damage to health facilities and the morgue."
UNICEF said the storm may have affected up to 60,000 children, who are particularly vulnerable given the already poor nutrition rates in the impoverished country.
Trees, metal roof sheeting and all manner of debris littered Port Vila's roads, while at the beach, several boats were wrecked, an AFP reporter said.
The streets of the capital were virtually deserted as night fell, with authorities enforcing a 6:00 pm curfew to prevent looting.
Charlotte Gillan, an Australian paramedic who lives in the village of Tango on the outskirts of Port Vila, said the front part of her house had collapsed.
"I fought tears seeing that devastation," she said, adding that the spread of disease was now her main concern.
- 'All that's gone' -
"With all the rain and rubbish around, there's going to be malaria and dengue, as well as diarrhoea and vomiting with water contamination. People here are reliant on their gardens for food. But all that's gone."
Save the Children's Vanuatu director Tom Skirrow told AFP the logistical challenges were even worse than for Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,350 people dead or missing.
"I was present for the Haiyan response and I would 100 percent tell you that this is a much more difficult logistical problem," he said.
"The numbers are smaller but the percentage of the population that's been affected is much bigger."
Skirrow said flights over remote islands in the archipelago, which spans more than 12,000 square kilometres (4,700 square miles), had confirmed widespread destruction elsewhere in the nation of 270,000.
Aid workers said it appeared the southern island of Tanna in particular suffered widespread damage.
Pacific nations regard themselves as at the frontline of climate change, given many are low-lying islands dangerously exposed to rising sea levels, and Lonsdale said changing weather patterns were partly to blame for the destruction.
The president of the Seychelles, James Michel, on Monday said Cyclone Pam was "a clear manifestation of climate change" and called on the international community to "wake up" to the impact of global warming.
Twenty-four people have been killed by Cyclone Pam which tore through Vanuatu, the UN said Tuesday, as the Pacific nation’s president pleaded for help to rebuild the archipelago’s “completely destroyed” infrastructure.
Aid agencies have warned that conditions are among the most challenging they have faced, with fears of disease rife, and outer islands cut off from radio or telephone contact, with the full scale of the disaster still unknown.
“There are 24 confirmed fatalities,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a situation report.
The official death toll had stood at six in Port Vila, where the storm damaged up to 90 percent of homes, with the latest figures showing the highest fatalities in the island chain’s southernmost province.
An emotional President Baldwin Lonsdale said the need was “immediate” after the storm packed winds of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour, leaving massive destruction on Friday night.
In the capital access to water was partially restored and stores began reopening, but entire neighbourhoods remained without power as aid workers streamed in to take the measure of what many have said might be one of the region’s worst weather disasters.
“The humanitarian need is immediate, we need it right now,” Lonsdale told AFP on Monday in Japan before flying home, adding longer-term financial support was also desperately needed.
“After all the development we have done for the last couple of years and this big cyclone came and just destroyed… all the infrastructure the government has… built. Completely destroyed.
“We need international funding to (re)build all the infrastructure.”
Many world leaders have pledged support. Military planes from Australia, New Zealand and France were arriving loaded with food, shelter, medicine and generators, along with disaster relief teams.
– Thousands sheltering –
The UN said 3,300 people were sheltering at 37 evacuation centres, and that aerial assessments had been carried out by military aircraft.
“Despite reports of severe and widespread damage, Shefa remains the only province declared an emergency at this stage,” said OCHA, referring to the region that includes Port Vila.
“Radio and telephone communications with outer islands is yet to be established,” it added.
As aid flights continued landing, workers on the ground said there was no way to distribute supplies across the archipelago’s 80 islands, warning it would take days to reach remote villages flattened by the storm which hit Friday night.
Oxfam country director in Port Vila, Colin Collett van Rooyen, said a lack of clean water, temporary toilets, water purification tablets and hygiene kits needed to be addressed rapidly.
“Friday night was the first emergency with the arrival of Cyclone Pam, disease will be the second emergency without clean water, sanitation and hygiene provision,” he said.
“There are more than 100,000 people likely homeless, every school destroyed, full evacuation centres, damage to health facilities and the morgue.”
UNICEF said the storm may have affected up to 60,000 children, who are particularly vulnerable given the already poor nutrition rates in the impoverished country.
Trees, metal roof sheeting and all manner of debris littered Port Vila’s roads, while at the beach, several boats were wrecked, an AFP reporter said.
The streets of the capital were virtually deserted as night fell, with authorities enforcing a 6:00 pm curfew to prevent looting.
Charlotte Gillan, an Australian paramedic who lives in the village of Tango on the outskirts of Port Vila, said the front part of her house had collapsed.
“I fought tears seeing that devastation,” she said, adding that the spread of disease was now her main concern.
– ‘All that’s gone’ –
“With all the rain and rubbish around, there’s going to be malaria and dengue, as well as diarrhoea and vomiting with water contamination. People here are reliant on their gardens for food. But all that’s gone.”
Save the Children’s Vanuatu director Tom Skirrow told AFP the logistical challenges were even worse than for Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,350 people dead or missing.
“I was present for the Haiyan response and I would 100 percent tell you that this is a much more difficult logistical problem,” he said.
“The numbers are smaller but the percentage of the population that’s been affected is much bigger.”
Skirrow said flights over remote islands in the archipelago, which spans more than 12,000 square kilometres (4,700 square miles), had confirmed widespread destruction elsewhere in the nation of 270,000.
Aid workers said it appeared the southern island of Tanna in particular suffered widespread damage.
Pacific nations regard themselves as at the frontline of climate change, given many are low-lying islands dangerously exposed to rising sea levels, and Lonsdale said changing weather patterns were partly to blame for the destruction.
The president of the Seychelles, James Michel, on Monday said Cyclone Pam was “a clear manifestation of climate change” and called on the international community to “wake up” to the impact of global warming.
