Vanuatu Faces Food Shortages After Cyclone Pam Devastates Crops

TIME

Survivors of Cyclone Pam on the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu are bracing for a lack of food over the coming months because crops were destroyed in the recent storm.

Much of the archipelago’s population relies on subsistence farming and when the monster cyclone ripped through the country last week it wiped out livelihoods as well as homes.

“There’s always a lot of attention in the beginning, the first few weeks of a big disaster. But now, we’re looking at a hunger gap over the next three to six months,” said World Vision’s Emergency Operations Manager in Vanuatu, Alex Snary.

Aid agencies are rushing to deliver desperately needed supplies, especially to communities on the remote outer islands, which are still out of contact.

At least 11 people were killed in the disaster and 3,3000 displaced.

“It’s almost miraculous [on Tanna Island] that there isn’t a large number of casualties, given…

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Vanuatu Update

Aid Agencies Struggle to Reach Affected in Vanuatu After ‘Monster’ Cyclone Pam

TIME

Vanuatu’s President Baldwin Lonsdale says the tiny South Pacific island nation has lost much of its development due to the havoc wreaked over the weekend by “monster” Cyclone Pam.

“It’s a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu. After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out,” he told the Associated Press in Japan attending a U.N. conference on disaster-risk reduction. “We will have to start anew again.”

Lonsdale went on to say that climate change contributed to the devastation as the low-lying islands of the Pacific are suffering from rising sea levels.

International aid agencies along with military personnel from Australia, France and New Zealand have arrived in Vanuatu to assess the damage and deliver much needed aid and supplies.

Oxfam, who led coordination efforts in preparing for the storm, said 90% of housing in the capital, Port Vila, has…

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Vanuatu: Cyclone Disaster