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Cyclone Pam leaves at least 24 dead, 3300 displaced: UN

Tuesday, 17 March 2015 12:03 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 March 2015 12:03 AM ]

A young boy kicking a ball as his father searches through the ruins of their family home in Vanuatu on March 16, 2015. (©AFP)

Cyclone Pam has killed at least 24 people and displaced 3,300 others in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu as the devastating typhoon moves on towards New Zealand.

The latest figures, announced by the United Nations on Monday, come as authorities plan to carry out aerial surveys by Australian and French aircraft on Tuesday in a bid to identify Vanuatu’s worst-hit areas.

Meanwhile, Radio and telephone communications with outer islands have not yet been re-established, as authorities dispatched every available plane and copter to fly over the hard-hit regions.

This is while the nation’s President Baldwin Lonsdale insisted that Vanuatu is in “immediate” need of major assistance following the destructive storm, adding that the cyclone had “wiped out” all of the country’s developments in recent years and that the nation will have to rebuild "everything."

Authorities estimate that 90 percent of the buildings in the capital, Port Vila, alone were destroyed, as emergency workers tried to provide the evacuees with basic items such as water and food.

The damaged airport in Port Vila has, however, re-opened, allowing some aid and relief flights to reach the country.

This is while aircraft flew over the province of Tafea on Monday, after which a private pilot offered an early report of more deaths, widespread property damage and water shortages on the island of Tanna.

Moreover, Vanuatu Lands Minister Ralph Regenvanu said the government would be briefed on Monday evening after the survey of Tafea, as a small team of emergency relief workers just arrived on Tanna to make initial assessments of the most urgent needs.

Meanwhile, relief aid has started arriving in the devastated nation, which is among the world's poorest, although contact was yet to be made with some of its more remote islands.

Relief agencies, however, state that it could prove to be one of the worst disasters ever to strike the region.

Cyclone Pam was the worst storm in the Pacific island’s history which experts say happened due to climate change.

The storm had already caused major damage to other Pacific islands, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. Tuvalu, a group of nine tiny islands northeast of Vanuatu, has also declared a state of emergency after the cyclone caused flash floods there.

MFB/NN

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