Australia is sending an extra 70 medical and search-and-rescue staff to Vanuatu in response to tropical cyclone Pam after surveillance flights showed the extent of the damage to the Pacific nation’s southern islands.
The death toll from the category five cyclone which swept through Vanuatu on Friday is already at 24, according to the UN, and is expected to climb as search-and-rescue teams move into less accessible areas.
Among the casualties is a one-week-old baby.
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said Australia offered extra assistance in response to reports from its aerial surveillance teams, which have been flying over Vanuatu’s southern islands. She refused to comment on casualties, saying the numbers were still too “fluid”, but said, “We anticipate that that number will increase as we are able to access a number of islands, particularly in the south and in provinces where communications are down.
“We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation, not only buildings flattened but palm plantations, trees. It’s quite a devastating sight.
“We’re seeking to land our planes on some of these islands and that assessment is being undertaken at the moment.
“That’s why I’m being very cautious about casualties, the death toll. We just don’t know until we can land planes with search-and-rescue teams and other experts on these outlying islands.”
One of the worst-hit areas was the popular holiday island of Tanna, where, Bishop said, “it appears that 80% of houses and buildings have been damaged or completely destroyed”.
“The eye of the cyclone almost went straight over that,” she said.
An additional 54 Australian urban search-and-rescue personnel are due to land in Port Vila on Tuesday to help assess the damage to its hospital and other critical infrastructure.
They will be joined on Wednesday by an extra 20 Australian medical assistance team personnel, who will establish a temporary 40-person ward in the Port Vila hospital car park.
The new consignment brings the number of Australians working in Vanuatu on the recovery effort to 123: 56 urban search-and-rescue personnel, 27 medical staff and 40 Australian government staff, including consular staff. There are also 50 Australian Defence Force personnel on the ground.
The first tranche of assistance from Australia arrived in Port Vila on Sunday in the form of emergency medical supplies and a commitment of $5m in aid to humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross.
There are believed to be 3,000 Australians in Vanuatu, more than 1,400 of whom have registered with the Australian government through Smartraveller, the government’s travel advisory service.
Almost 200 people have returned to Australia in ADF planes and the first commercial flight from Vanuatu arrived in Australia on Monday.
Bishop would not comment on reports of individual Australians who had lost contact with their families.
“We are aware of unconfirmed reports and we are trying very hard to verify them as soon as possible,” she said.
