This was published 4 years ago
Tropical Cyclone Harold leaves Pacific islands devastated after COVID-19 keeps tourists away
Damaged crops in the wake of Cyclone Harold on the island of Santo in Vanuatu.Credit: AP
In the Pacific, where four countries have been ravaged by Tropical Cyclone Harold, there are fears their plight could be lost amid the global focus on COVID-19.
And indeed, their own fight against the pandemic is preventing recovery from the biggest storm to ravage the region in four years.
"There is a medical emergency ... and there's an economic crisis on top of a humanitarian crisis," Kendra Derousseau, World Vision's Vanuatu country director said.
More than a week after the monster storm made landfall on Vanuatu, hitting the islands of Santo and Pentecost, and Fiji, the full effects are yet to be known.
What is known about Harold makes for grim reading.
Thousands are without shelter, their homes destroyed.
Food and water are lacking in many areas and at least 20 people are dead.
In the Solomon Islands, 17 people were washed overboard from a crowded ferry which set off into storm waters generated by Harold.
Three people have died in Vanuatu, but the toll could be higher as there are places that still haven't been surveyed by recovery agencies, and people with life-threatening injuries in hospital.
Remarkably, the northern provincial hospital in Luganville - the biggest settlement on Santo - has been able to open in a limited capacity to treat some of the injured.
The Vanuatu government believes around 20 per cent of Pentecost's near 20,000-strong population were injured by debris from the winds.
Pentecost, which wore the storm's full force with sustained winds of 220km/h, has been decimated beyond imagination.
And further on Harold's journey, the southern Fijian island of Kadavu and Lau island group were also ravaged.
Harold didn't make landfall in Tonga but still battered the coastline, bringing flooding, damage to wharves and roads.
Ms Derousseau is one of the few to survey the worst-hit landscapes near Luganville.
"The day after the cyclone fully passed out of Vanuatu waters I was able to get on a charter flight with some other development partners and go up and check on the safety of our staff and our office," she said.
"At least 50 per cent of the buildings are uninhabitable with 90 per cent having some level of significant damage."
"On Pentecost, it is worse.
"I thought that it looked like tornado damage rather than cyclone damage. I've since heard that there were small tornadoes spun in the eye of the cyclone. So that damage is tornado damage."
Ms Derousseau said Vanuatuan medical teams were responding as best they could, providing on-site assistance and evacuating the most-severely injured.
Some villages are yet to be helped.
The Vanuatu Daily Post reports no aid or support has reached communities on the west coast of Santo more than a week after the storm's passing.
The same report says reliance on sketchy water sources has produced cases of diarrhoea, with up to half of the population displaying cold or flu-type symptoms.
Making landfall a third time on the Fijian island of Kadavu, as a category-four storm, Harold fully or partially destroyed around 20 per cent of the island's homes.
Harold's strength is historic.
It is the world's strongest cyclone this year, and the South Pacific's most powerful storm since Winston in February 2016, which brought catastrophic damage to Fiji.
Jacqueline De Gailland, the Secretary General of Vanuatu Red Cross, said the last category-five system to hit Vanuatu - Pam in 2015 - showed the road to recovery was long.
"Many of our staff and volunteers were very involved with the response after Cyclone Pam hit as a category 5 in 2015," she said.
"Recovery from a storm like Harold can take years."
World Vision has launched a public appeal for funds, but Ms Derousseau said aid agencies were downbeat on their ability to raise funds during the coronavirus.
"Global employment levels are significantly lower which means that private donations drop and countries are stitching together their own economic stimulus under COVID," she said.
"We understand they will be lower. So we'll do the best we can with what's available."
Vanuatu is yet to record a case of COVID-19, and a safety-first approach from the government means relief from Australia and New Zealand must be quarantined for days before use.
It is usual for dozens of relief workers and defence forces to arrive and assist with relief in the days after a cyclone - but none have been allowed.
Oxfam's Fiji-based Pacific regional director Raijeli Nicole - who hails from Fiji's worst-hit Kadavu Island - says there are worries around supplies of personal protective equipment.
"PPE is a stress on the system," she said.
"There is definitely competition for PPE and we're working closely with colleagues in Australia and NZ."
Ms Nicole says previous work to place relief supplies across the Pacific has been critical.
"We already know category five cyclones will become the norm, not the exception," she said.
"The difference with COVID-19 is we can't call upon that international support to fly in."
And in the absence of private support, governments have stepped up.
Australia, New Zealand, the EU and France have all made major donations.
The Australian government has also flown home Australians in the region, including 37 from Vanuatu on 13 April on a flight that had delivered humanitarian supplies.
Beyond the immediate crisis, Ms Derousseau fears a long road to recovery.
"Forty per cent of Vanuatu's economy is tourism and that won't be back for a long time. So we'll continue to encourage partners and people to not forget Vanuatu in our time of need."
AAP
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