By John Bacon and Doug Stanglin
Residents take shelter as floodwaters move inland on Tuvalu island in the Vanuatu archipelago.
...Pacific Red Cross (click here) chief Aurelia Balpe told The Australian that a pilot flew over the islands, reporting that on the southern island of Tanna many buildings were destroyed and even concrete buildings no longer had roofs. The southern end of the chain appeared to take the most direct hit.
"What he told me is that he could land — that was the first positive," Balpe told the Australian. "But as they flew in and out they saw lots of trees uprooted and, what was most striking, all corrugated iron structures were destroyed as far as they eye could see.
Cyclone Pam, possibly the worst cyclone in the Pacific's history, slammed into Vanuatu late Friday. Wind speeds of more than 165 mph made Pam a Category 5 storm.
Vanuatu, about a quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii, has a population of 267,000. About 34,000 living on Tanna and tiny nearby islands at the southern end of the chain.
But the entire nation appeared to be devastated. The New Zealand Herald reported that 90% of homes Port Vila, with a population of almost 50,000, were damaged or destroyed.
"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....
