Video: Cyclone Pam Wreaks Havoc In Vanuatu, Pacific

http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/region-cyclone-pam-wreaks-havoc-vanuatu-pacific-9158

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Item: 9158

PORT VILA (Secretariat of the Pacific Community/Radio New Zealand International/Pacific Media Watch): The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) was today on standby to provide technical assistance to the affected Pacific countries amid reports of Cyclone Pam devastating parts of Vanuatu overnight.

The above video by a witness, 350 Vanuatu coordinator Isso Nihmei, who drove around Port Vila, shows the widespread destruction in the capital.

In Noumea, Director-General, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, said the SPC was ready to deploy teams to Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, depending on the governments’ needs in the wake of the severe tropical cyclone.

Dr Tukuitonga yesterday contacted Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office to offer SPC assistance, given the greatest impact of the cyclone is expected to be felt in Vanuatu.

Radio New Zealand International reported government buildings had been destroyed, half the Port Vila hospital had gone and that the city was largely wrecked by the cyclone.

The category 5 cyclone also battered Vanuatu's northern provinces.

Earlier story

ENDS

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