WELLINGTON, New Zealand — At least eight people were confirmed dead in Vanuatu after a massive cyclone tore through the tiny South Pacific archipelago.
The death toll is likely to rise much higher once communications are restored with outlying islands, aid workers said Sunday.
Packing winds of 168 miles per hour, Cyclone Pam ripped through Vanuatu early Saturday, leaving a trail of destruction.
Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer in Port Vila, said officials from Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office confirmed to her agency that at least eight people in and around the capital, Port Vila, died during the cyclone.
Officials have yet to assess the damage in many of the hard-hit outer islands because communications remain down, she said. Morrison said she had heard reports of entire villages being destroyed in remote areas.
A westward change of course put populated areas directly in the path of Pam.
Morrison said residents were awakening to much calmer weather Sunday after many hunkered down in emergency shelters for a second straight night Saturday. She said power remains out and communications patchy.
Many people who have ventured out from 23 emergency shelters around Port Vila have found their homes damaged or blown away, Morrison said.
She said communications have been so problematic that her aid group hasn’t yet been able to account for many of its own 76 staff members on the islands.
For anybody who wasn’t in a secure shelter during the cyclone, “it would have been a very, very tough time for them,” she said.
Vanuatu has a population of 267,000 spread over 65 islands. About 47,000 people live in the capital. The small island nation is located about a quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii.
Morrison said the first priority was to ensure people had adequate food, drinking water and shelter. Beyond that, she said, there would need to be a long and concerted rebuilding effort in the months ahead.
New Zealand pledged $734,000 toward relief efforts. Australia was preparing to send a crisis-response team to Vanuatu if needed.
