SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
In Vanuatu, Death Toll Climbs as Scale of Devastation Sinks In
'In the next days people will not have enough food anymore.'
Mar 20, 2015
Thousands of people left homeless in Vanuatu last weekend after a deadly cyclone ripped through the cluster of islands in the South Pacific were still waiting for relief on Friday.
As the confirmed death toll from the hurricane rose to 13, many survivors were still taking refuge in homeless shelters, while Vanuatu's government began distributing emergency supplies to some of the affected areas and foreign aid arrived to the hard-hit island of Tanna in the form of French and Australian troops.
Other provinces will have to wait for the government to finish its official assessment before they send help. "Some relief supplies have been starting to get there anyway, but the more organized and the larger relief efforts will start tomorrow," Osnat Lubrani, the country's United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told the Associated Press on Friday. "The relief has to start coming now, because if it doesn't come in the next two days or so, then we will have problems with food and with water."
The island nation will need at least $2 million in emergency aid to buy supplies and ship them to the most affected areas, the UN said.
According to Oxfam, up to 90 percent of housing in Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, was seriously damaged from the cyclone, which hit the archipelago with winds that soared from 155-185 miles per hour.
Isso Nihmei, Vanuatu's coordinator for 350.org, made an appeal for help from supporters on Tuesday, stating, "In the next days people will not have enough food anymore."
"Now that Cyclone Pam has left, it's like a heat wave has hit us," Isso continued. "Climate change is bringing new extremes to Vanuatu. It's devastating us."
As Neel Patel explains at Wired, there are unique and severe challenges to bringing help to Vanuatu. Patel writes:
A Category 5 storm is a short straw for any country to pull, but especially for Vanuatu, a geographically fragmented nation spread over 800 miles in the middle of the ocean. It's already difficult to communicate and travel between the country's 82 separate islands--let alone after a cyclone hits.
... OCHA [UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] estimates a need for for 12,000 more shelter kits and 24,00 tarpaulins for displaced victims. "Getting around Vanuatu on a good day was already difficult," says [Oxfam director Michael] Delaney. But with many airstrips and deepwater ports destroyed or damaged by the cyclone, efforts to get food, water, and medical supplies to people in need are severely stifled.
As previously reported by Common Dreams, resources were already strained throughout the island nation due to the effects of climate change. But Cyclone Pam's devastation not only tore apart housing and infrastructure but also destroyed forests and crops--an incalculable consequence for a nation of farmers. With few crops and livestock left, food shortages will be exacerbated for at least a few years, Patel says.
"And once the buildings are standing again, Vanuatu's citizens will need to prepare for the next time a disaster hits," he writes.
For those who wish to donate toward relief efforts, CNN compiled a list of aid groups "poised and ready to start helping once it is safe to do so."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Thousands of people left homeless in Vanuatu last weekend after a deadly cyclone ripped through the cluster of islands in the South Pacific were still waiting for relief on Friday.
As the confirmed death toll from the hurricane rose to 13, many survivors were still taking refuge in homeless shelters, while Vanuatu's government began distributing emergency supplies to some of the affected areas and foreign aid arrived to the hard-hit island of Tanna in the form of French and Australian troops.
Other provinces will have to wait for the government to finish its official assessment before they send help. "Some relief supplies have been starting to get there anyway, but the more organized and the larger relief efforts will start tomorrow," Osnat Lubrani, the country's United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told the Associated Press on Friday. "The relief has to start coming now, because if it doesn't come in the next two days or so, then we will have problems with food and with water."
The island nation will need at least $2 million in emergency aid to buy supplies and ship them to the most affected areas, the UN said.
According to Oxfam, up to 90 percent of housing in Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, was seriously damaged from the cyclone, which hit the archipelago with winds that soared from 155-185 miles per hour.
Isso Nihmei, Vanuatu's coordinator for 350.org, made an appeal for help from supporters on Tuesday, stating, "In the next days people will not have enough food anymore."
"Now that Cyclone Pam has left, it's like a heat wave has hit us," Isso continued. "Climate change is bringing new extremes to Vanuatu. It's devastating us."
As Neel Patel explains at Wired, there are unique and severe challenges to bringing help to Vanuatu. Patel writes:
A Category 5 storm is a short straw for any country to pull, but especially for Vanuatu, a geographically fragmented nation spread over 800 miles in the middle of the ocean. It's already difficult to communicate and travel between the country's 82 separate islands--let alone after a cyclone hits.
... OCHA [UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] estimates a need for for 12,000 more shelter kits and 24,00 tarpaulins for displaced victims. "Getting around Vanuatu on a good day was already difficult," says [Oxfam director Michael] Delaney. But with many airstrips and deepwater ports destroyed or damaged by the cyclone, efforts to get food, water, and medical supplies to people in need are severely stifled.
As previously reported by Common Dreams, resources were already strained throughout the island nation due to the effects of climate change. But Cyclone Pam's devastation not only tore apart housing and infrastructure but also destroyed forests and crops--an incalculable consequence for a nation of farmers. With few crops and livestock left, food shortages will be exacerbated for at least a few years, Patel says.
"And once the buildings are standing again, Vanuatu's citizens will need to prepare for the next time a disaster hits," he writes.
For those who wish to donate toward relief efforts, CNN compiled a list of aid groups "poised and ready to start helping once it is safe to do so."
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Thousands of people left homeless in Vanuatu last weekend after a deadly cyclone ripped through the cluster of islands in the South Pacific were still waiting for relief on Friday.
As the confirmed death toll from the hurricane rose to 13, many survivors were still taking refuge in homeless shelters, while Vanuatu's government began distributing emergency supplies to some of the affected areas and foreign aid arrived to the hard-hit island of Tanna in the form of French and Australian troops.
Other provinces will have to wait for the government to finish its official assessment before they send help. "Some relief supplies have been starting to get there anyway, but the more organized and the larger relief efforts will start tomorrow," Osnat Lubrani, the country's United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told the Associated Press on Friday. "The relief has to start coming now, because if it doesn't come in the next two days or so, then we will have problems with food and with water."
The island nation will need at least $2 million in emergency aid to buy supplies and ship them to the most affected areas, the UN said.
According to Oxfam, up to 90 percent of housing in Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, was seriously damaged from the cyclone, which hit the archipelago with winds that soared from 155-185 miles per hour.
Isso Nihmei, Vanuatu's coordinator for 350.org, made an appeal for help from supporters on Tuesday, stating, "In the next days people will not have enough food anymore."
"Now that Cyclone Pam has left, it's like a heat wave has hit us," Isso continued. "Climate change is bringing new extremes to Vanuatu. It's devastating us."
As Neel Patel explains at Wired, there are unique and severe challenges to bringing help to Vanuatu. Patel writes:
A Category 5 storm is a short straw for any country to pull, but especially for Vanuatu, a geographically fragmented nation spread over 800 miles in the middle of the ocean. It's already difficult to communicate and travel between the country's 82 separate islands--let alone after a cyclone hits.
... OCHA [UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] estimates a need for for 12,000 more shelter kits and 24,00 tarpaulins for displaced victims. "Getting around Vanuatu on a good day was already difficult," says [Oxfam director Michael] Delaney. But with many airstrips and deepwater ports destroyed or damaged by the cyclone, efforts to get food, water, and medical supplies to people in need are severely stifled.
As previously reported by Common Dreams, resources were already strained throughout the island nation due to the effects of climate change. But Cyclone Pam's devastation not only tore apart housing and infrastructure but also destroyed forests and crops--an incalculable consequence for a nation of farmers. With few crops and livestock left, food shortages will be exacerbated for at least a few years, Patel says.
"And once the buildings are standing again, Vanuatu's citizens will need to prepare for the next time a disaster hits," he writes.
For those who wish to donate toward relief efforts, CNN compiled a list of aid groups "poised and ready to start helping once it is safe to do so."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.