The Category
Five cyclone was one of the worst storms to ever hit the region. It is
estimated that 166,000 people have been affected, and between 50-90% of
infrastructure destroyed.
ShelterBox is
working with CARE International who is responding in Tafea Province in the
south, where 32,000 people live.
Large parts
of Tanna, which is home to around 24,000 people, remain cut off due to
landslides and severe cyclone damage making many roads impassable. Aerial
assessments indicate that in some communities all the homes have been severely
damaged or destroyed.
“Decimation
is the only word for what has happened here,” said CARE Vantuatu’s Program
Manager Charlie Damon in Lenakal on Tanna Island’s western coast. “You cannot
see a leaf on a tree. What used to be a green island, is now brown. All crops
have been destroyed, all traditional housing is gone. People are without water.
This is a grave situation down here.”
“This is a
country of 83 islands stretched over many hundreds of miles of ocean. Most
people in the country live in rural communities, and even making contact with
most areas remains extremely challenging,” said CARE’s Tom Perry in Port Vila.
“Communications
are still down, roads are blocked by landslides and many bridges are broken or
have collapsed. CARE is doing what we can to get help to those that need it,
but this is a massive logistical challenge.”
ShelterBox
Response Teams are busy assisting survivors in the Tafea Province with urgently
needed shelter. ShelterBox volunteer Greg Moran (AUS) reports that the urgently
needed Shelter Kits which have arrived today on a barge had travelled overnight
from Port Vila. The barge is carrying a large amount of ShelterBox aid for the island
and the team’s next challenge will be to get the aid to where it is most
needed.
Media contact: Mike Cahill +64 (0) 21 328084 mc@shelterbox.org.nz
About ShelterBox: Every year thousands of communities, often with no warning, lose their
homes, their possessions and their livelihoods. Every day they are faced with a
battle for survival.
ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to support
communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis.
Since we were founded in 2000, we have responded to
more than 250 earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides,
typhoons and conflict, in some 90 countries, delivering emergency humanitarian
aid to communities in need.
