A corpse in the main street, another floating in the harbour, reports of dozens dead elsewhere, and buildings and whole villages blasted into pieces.
These were some of the scenes that greeted dazed Vanuatu residents and tourists on Sunday as the rescue effort and clean-up started in the tiny Pacific island nation which was devastated by Cyclone Pam. The monster category-5 storm, which brought wind gusts of 300km/h, has weakened to a category-3 cyclone as it heads towards New Zealand's North Island
On Sunday, the country's National Disaster Management Office reported at least eight people were confirmed dead and 20 had suffered serious injuries.
Advertisement But the death and injury toll was expected to rise as search and rescue efforts ramp up. The first flights bringing outside aid landed at the newly cleared airport near the capital Port Vila about midday on Sunday.
Unconfirmed reports were circulating of more than 40 people killed in northern Penama province, according to the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Pacific. The province is about 120 kilometres from Port Vila.
Two foreign nationals were thought to have drowned when their sailing boat sank in the rough seas, but their nationalities have not been confirmed.
Australian tourism operators in Port Vila on Sunday confirmed they saw bodies around the capital.
Resort project manager Bernie Millman said he had gone outside on Saturday morning to find a Vanuatu national dead in front of a resort on the main street.
It looked like some local person had been stranded during the night. Perhaps he'd had too much to drink and had been trying to get back to his home and fallen asleep," said Mr Millman.
"And he's been hit by something. They called the ambulance and the police and they came and got the body."
Charter boat operator Australian Peter Phillipps said the body of an unidentified expat had been removed from the harbour in front of his mooring in Port Vila.
He was a fellow who had been living on a yacht and got into strife. He got into the tender and was drowned. They found his body in the tender [on Saturday].
"I couldn't tell you where he was from. We used to see him standing on his yacht waving to people."
Tom Skirrow, country director for Save the Children, said the Vanuatu Government's National Disaster Management Office co-ordinating the emergency response has confirmed the eight deaths.
The victims had been recovered from Port Vila, and its surrounding areas.
"It's without doubt a small number now and it will increase significantly as we start looking around. The problem at the moment is that no one can phone, no one has any communication or any power, so it's very difficult to get accurate numbers," Mr Skirrow said in a phone interview from Port Vila on Sunday.
Thousands more are believed to be homeless across some of the country's 83 islands after the cyclone's 300km/h gusts were reported to have leveled entire villages.
Monday 16 March 2015
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/cyclone-pam-vanuatu-rescue-effort-as-bodies-picked-up-after-monster-storm-20150316-144nlp.html
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