'Like a bomb's gone off': Cyclone hits Vanuatu dead-on

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption At least 8 confirmed dead as cyclone slams Pacific's Vanuatu The island nation of Vanuatu suffered a direct hit from Cyclone Pam Saturday. The U.N. and other regional agencies are dispatching aid teams.

Cyclone Pam, possibly the worst cyclone in the Pacific's history, slammed directly into the tiny South Pacific archipelago Vanuatu early Saturday, killing at least eight people and leaving thousands homeless, according to reports from aid organizations.

At one point, wind speeds reached 168 mph, the Associated Press reported, making Pam a Category 5 storm.

The sheer size of the devastation is only beginning to trickle out because almost all power and communications have been cut to much of Vanuatu, a string of 65 islands located about a quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii.

Its population of 267,000 is spread over the islands, with about 47,000 living in the capital, Port Vila.

Save the Children's Nicola Krey told CBS Radio News that she expects many homeless as rescue teams fan out across the archipelago.

"Today we've only counted 1,500 people in an evacuation center in Port Vila," she said. "That leaves tens of thousands of people unprotected from that type of storm."

Save the Children's director, Tom Skirrow, told Reuters the conservative figure of eight dead so far came from the country's National Disaster Management Office and was based on reports from hospitals and paramedic services.

"The immediate concern is for a very high death toll but also an enormous amount of destruction and devastation," Sune Gudnitz, regional director for the UN's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), told Reuters.

There were unconfirmed reports that 44 people had died in Penama province in the northeast of Vanuata, UNOCHA said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

Oxfam, the international aid agency, said its staff on the ground in Vanuatu reported a "complete destruction of homes," with three-story-high trees completely uprooted and small communities left with almost no homes standing.

"We have no power or running water and are still not able to move around freely," Collett van Rooyen, Oxfam's Vanuatu country director, reported. "The scale of this disaster is unprecedented in this country and the proud people of Vanuatu are going to need a lot of help to rebuild their homes and their lives."

Unicef New Zealand Executive Director Vivien Maidaborn said the early reports indicate that the disaster "could potentially be one of the worst in Pacific history."

The huge cyclone, as hurricanes are called in the Pacific, hit Vanuatu dead-center after a last-minute change of course to the west.

Raw: Cyclone causes widespread damage in Pacific's Vanuatu Winds from an extremely powerful cyclone that blew through the Pacific's Vanuatu archipelago were beginning to subside on Saturday, revealing widespread destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths. (March 14)

Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer in Port Vila, said the aid group was unable to account for many of its 76 staff members on the islands.

She said authorities did a good job Friday moving thousands of people in Port Vila into 23 evacuation centers. With the winds and rain easing Saturday, many people stepped out only to find that their homes were missing a roof or had disappeared, and were forced to return to the shelters.

"It's still really quite dangerous outside. Most people are still hunkering down," she said.

She said she's hearing reports of entire villages being destroyed in more remote areas, but that poor communications have made it difficult to make a full assessment.

Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for relief agency UNICEF in Port Vila, said the capital had been devastated by the storm.

"It looks like a bomb's gone off," she told NZME News Service, The New Zealand Herald reports. "Tourists who have been to Port Vila wouldn't recognize it."

She said trees and tin roofing were scattered across roads making it impossible for cars to get through. Broken shutters and glass from blown-out windows was everywhere she looked, Clements told the news service.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the impact and scope of the disaster caused by Cyclone Pam wasn't yet clear, but he feared the damage and destruction could be widespread.

"We hope the loss of life will be minimal," he said during a World Conference on Disaster Risk and Reduction in Japan. The U.N. said it was preparing to deploy emergency rapid response units.

The president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, who was attending the conference, told participants: "I do not really know what impact the cyclone has had on Vanuatu."

"I am speaking to you today with a heart that is so heavy," he said. "I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people to give a helping hand in this disaster."

Australia was preparing to send a crisis response team to Vanuatu if needed, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

"There are destructive winds, rain, flooding, landslides, sea surges and very rough seas and the storm is exceedingly destructive there," she said. "We are still assessing the situation, but we stand ready to assist."

The tiny Pacific island nation has repeatedly warned it is already suffering devastating effects from climate change with the island's coastal areas being washed away, forcing resettlement to higher ground and smaller yields on traditional crops.

The cyclone has already destroyed some homes and caused damage to other Pacific islands including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.

David Gibson, acting director of the Vanuatu meteorology and geohazards department, said the winds could cause severe damage to the nation's buildings.

Alice Clements, a spokeswoman for relief agency UNICEF who is in Port Vila, said Friday the capital was like a ghost town as people took shelter. She said the pelting rain was blown horizontally by the wind.

Authorities in New Zealand are preparing for the storm, which was forecast to pass north of the country on Sunday and Monday.

Contributing: The Associated Press