- HONIARA (Reuters) - A cyclone
that devastated remote South Pacific islands five days ago washed away
at least two villages and there was no word on the fate of about 700 people
who lived there, local officials said on Thursday.
-
- There has been no contact with the Solomon Islands chain
since Cyclone Zoe pounded the area on Sunday. Radio links are down, there
are no airstrips on the islands and no ship has reached there yet.
-
- An Australian aid crew that flew over the cyclone-hit
area on Wednesday had said the islands were badly damaged but saw many
residents working as normal.
-
- But Martin Karani of the Solomons' National Disaster
Management Office said aerial photographs taken from the plane showed the
villages of Ravenga and Namo on Tikopia island had been virtually washed
away by heavy seas.
-
- "All that is left is the bare trunk of coconut trees
with the sand halfway up the trees. There's not even any sign of the houses
left," Karani told Reuters in the Solomons' capital, Honiara.
-
- "We cannot say at this stage what happened to the
700 people living in both villages. We just hope that they were able to
get out in good time."
-
- Earlier in the day, Alan March, from Australia's aid
agency AusAID, told reporters in Canberra that the Australian crew had
reported widespread damage to traditional housing, crops and gardens on
two islands in the remote Santa Cruz chain.
-
- "But there is no evidence -- albeit from 500 feet
-- of injuries or casualties," March said, raising an earlier estimate
of inhabitants to 3,700 from 2,000.
-
- NO CONTACT
-
- Emergency supplies are yet to reach what are some of
the world's most isolated islands that lost contact with the outside world
when the cyclone hit with 190 mph winds, cutting all radio links.
-
- A dispute with the crew of a Solomons patrol boat over
unpaid wages has blocked the departure of a vessel carrying emergency supplies
to the islands, which are at the furthest reach of the sprawling Solomons
archipelago.
-
- But March said authorities in the impoverished South
Pacific nation had chartered a commercial passenger vessel that was due
to leave Honiara at midnight on Thursday.
-
- The boat will carry enough water, food and medical supplies
for up to 700 families and a medical team -- but the journey was expected
take two or three days depending on the weather.
-
- March said two islands, Tikopia and Anuta, bore the brunt
of the storm, with wind damage to three other islands, located 600 miles
southeast of Honiara and about 1,800 miles northeast of Australia.
-
- March, downplaying fears about the scale of the disaster,
said the Australian crew had spotted islanders fishing and rebuilding homes
on Tikopia -- with no sign of signaling for help.
-
- Tikopia islanders, living in about 21 villages, have
a long history of coping with cyclones.
-
- As a result, the islanders have developed methods such
as building low-lying dwellings and cyclone shelters and burying emergency
stocks of food.
-
- But with help still days away, survivors on the islands
face dangers such as contaminated water.
-
- March said there was fresh water on Tikopia and plenty
of coconuts with milk to drink but the Australian government was on standby
to respond to any call for help from the Solomons government after providing
A$50,000 ($28,000) for supplies.
-
- The former British colony of 450,000 people is bankrupt
and its economy is dependent on foreign aid after years of ethnic fighting
and poor administration.
-
- Cyclone Zoe weakened after hitting the islands and by
Thursday was just a low pressure system, posing no danger, said an Australian
Bureau of Meteorology spokesman.
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