- The Polynesian island of Tikopia has been hit by massive
11 metre (36 feet) high waves which appear to have swept away entire villages
and completely destroyed the lagoon around the island, experts said.
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- Cyclone Zoe over the weekend slammed into the Tikopia
and Anuta in the Temotu district of the Solomon Islands and although no
word has come from them two surveillance flights Wednesday revealed extensive
damage.
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- The islands have a combined population of around 3,000
people.
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- An anthropologist who lived on Tikopia, Judith Macdonald,
said that from the photographs she had seen, entire villages have disappeared.
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- "In the area where three of the four chiefs lived
it's all gone, at least 100 houses," she told AFP.
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- Macdonald said it was imperative that Hercules aircraft
begin airdropping food and added that ships will not be able to get cargo
ashore as the lagoon has gone.
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- An emotional Temotu Premier Gabriel Teao told AFP from
the regional capital Lata that he feared many people have been swept away.
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- "Whole villages have been buried and I am still
not sure how many people are dead," he told AFP.
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- There has been no word from Tikopia or Anuta since the
storm and the Solomons government, handicapped by four years of civil war,
has been able to provide no help.
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- Macdonald, an anthropologist at Waikato University, south
of Auckland, said the photographs she saw revealed "appalling and
horrendous damage".
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- The photographs show wide sandy beaches around Tikopia
but the island does not have beaches normally and Macdonald said she believed
the fringing reef had been lifted up into the lagoon that was now full
of sand and debris.
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- A fresh water lake, stocked with fish, had been flooded.
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- Maddonald said: "It is desperate that we immediately,
absolutely immediately, get Hercules (helicopters) to airdrop food and
shelter to the people."
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- She said the people should not be given rice as they
normally did not have pots and would not know what to do with it.
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- The emergency supplies of taro had probably been hit
by sea water, the breadfruit trees were smashed and heavy swells would
prevent fishing.
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- "They will have no material for building new houses.
This is the worst cyclone that has ever happened in the Solomons."
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- Gabriel Teao said he was more worried than ever about
the fate of his people.
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- The local parliament had met Tuesday including the new
Tikopia representative, Jeffrey Teaeava.
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- "We had a two minute silence," Teao said. "I
really cried."
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- He said the situation was now worse than he had feared.
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- "They are used to cyclones and for generation after
generation they have been taught what to do when a cyclone strikes,"
Teao said. "This one was the very worst they have experienced.
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- "It is very devastating... They really need help,
I am really worried."
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- Teao was frustrated to hear that the Solomons police
patrol boat Lata, due to have left Wednesday, would not be coming. The
Solomons, blighted by a four-year long civil, lacks resources to arrange
help. It is understood a civil inter-island trader, funded by New Zealand,
would go instead.
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- Zoe, which was born on Christmas Day over Tuvalu, swept
westward toward Tikopia where it topped the intensity scale for cyclones
and stayed over the island for two days.
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- It then turned south-eastward and was due Thursday to
be delisted as a cyclone in waters north of New Zealand.
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