Aid Heads for Vanuatu After Devastating Pacific Cyclone

The first shipments of aid headed for Vanuatu on Sunday as authorities declared a state of emergency and global relief agencies geared up after a powerful cyclone tore through the vulnerable Pacific island nation.

With winds of more than 300 kph (185 mph), Cyclone Pam razed homes, smashed boats and destroyed crops as it struck late on Friday and Saturday.

The official count of confirmed deaths was at eight with 20 people injured. But those numbers were almost certain to rise as rescuers reached the low-lying archipelago's outlying islands.

Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office said the government still had no word from outside the capital.

"Our communication link is still down," said Paolo Malatu, a relief official at the office. "We haven't got any information from outside Port Vila."

"The biggest need at the moment is shelter and food and wash kits," Malatu said.

Witnesses described sea surges of up to eight metres (26 feet) and flooding throughout Port Vila after the category 5 cyclone hit.

Satellite images showed a menacing spiral of storm covering virtually the whole archipelago.

Residents said the storm sounded like a freight train. Port Vila was strewn with debris and looked as if a bomb had gone off.

Thousands of people were homeless, many left standing stunned in the wreckage of their homes. Flash floods brought more misery in Vanuatu and neighbouring countries.

President Baldwin Lonsdale, who happened to be at a disaster risk conference in Japan on Saturday, appealed to the world to "give a lending hand". He was trying to reach home on Sunday.

Red Cross officials said the first aid flight, a New Zealand military Hercules aircraft carrying tarpaulins and other emergency supplies, was cleared to land on Sunday as Port Vila's airport partially reopened.

A UN team was also due in Port Vila on Sunday with members drawn from as far away as Europe. Britain, which jointly ruled Vanuatu with France until independence in 1980, has offered up to two million pounds ($2.95 million) in assistance.

Formerly known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu is sprawling cluster of 83 islands and 260,000 people, 2,000 km (1,250 miles) northeast of the Australian city of Brisbane.

It is among the world's poorest countries and highly prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and storms.

Aid officials said the storm was comparable in strength to Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013 and killed more than 6,000 people, and looked set to be one of the worst natural disasters the Pacific region has ever experienced.

"Remote and really small"

Oxfam's country manager Colin Collett van Rooyen said Vanuatu's outlying islands were particularly vulnerable.

"We are talking about islands that are remote and really small, with none of what we would call modern infrastructure," he said.

"We anticipate that that will go higher," he said, referring to the confirmed death toll of eight.

Offers of help have poured in from around the world, but with communications down, information and access will be major obstacles.

Australia said it was sending two military aircraft including one with medical experts, search and rescue teams and emergency supplies.

"This package will include A$5 million that will be provided to Australian NGOs, particularly the Red Cross and to other United Nations partners," Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Perth.

"We will also be deploying humanitarian supplies to provide support for up to 5,000 people in the form of water, sanitation and shelter."

Aurelia Balpe, regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters communications were a huge problem and Vanuatu's medical system was poorly equipped for such a large-scale disaster.

"The country mostly relies on first aid posts and the supplies in the clinics are probably just antibiotics and pain relief."

On Sunday, Pam was moving away to the southeast, and New Zealand's northern regions were preparing to feel its effects. Authorities there were warning the public to prepare for damaging winds, heavy rain and massive seas.