Suva, Fiji---Vanuatu's president made an emotional appeal for international assistance on Saturday after his island nation was hit by a calamity of a cyclone, wreaking devastation in what is feared to be one of the region's worst weather disasters.
Though the full extent of the damage is unknown, the UN had unconfirmed reports of 44 people killed in just one province while aid agencies described scenes of destroyed homes, downed trees and blocked roads as a result of Super Cyclone Pam, a maximum category five storm.
Media including the Wall Street Journal cited the country's Disaster Management Office in saying six people were killed and a state of emergency declared over the tropical cyclone, which had gusts of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour.
Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale led appeals for international assistance, telling delegates at a UN conference on disaster risk reduction in Japan that he spoke with a "heart that is so heavy".
"I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and people of Vanuatu to the global community to give a lending hand in responding to these very current calamities that have struck us," Lonsdale said.
"Fellow heads of state, governments, and development partners, we have all experienced a form of disaster at one time or another. Today we appeal for your assistance."
Aid agencies were scrambling for information and preparing to send teams to Vanuatu, whose main island is home to more than 65,000 people, with a UN disaster assessment and coordination team expected to arrive late Sunday.
- NGO appeals -
NGOs have also launched appeals and are hoping to start flying in emergency supplies of food, shelter and medicine from Sunday, when the airport in the capital Port Vila is expected to reopen.
Australia offered assistance and said medical and search and rescue staff were on standby. Donations included $2.9 million from Britain, $733,750 by New Zealand and $1.05 million from the European Union.
"A disaster of this magnitude has not been experienced by Vanuatu in recent history -- particularly in terms of the reach of the potential damage and the ferocity of the storm," said Sune Gudnitz, who heads the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Pacific.
UNICEF New Zealand Executive Director Vivien Maidaborn, meanwhile, said that "early reports are indicating that this weather disaster could potentially be one of the worst in Pacific history".
"The sheer force of the storm combined with communities just not set up to withstand it, could have devastating results for thousands across the region."
Aurelia Balpe, head of the Pacific regional office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that while there were reports of casualties in Port Vila, they had greater fears for outlying southern islands, home to more than 33,000 people, where communications had been cut.
World Vision said more than 2,000 people had already sought refuge in emergency shelters in Port Vila, but warned that it could take weeks to reach more remote islands affected by the storm.
AFP
