Casualty figures expected to rise after Vanuatu earthquake – Irish Times

Casualty figures for the earthquake in Vanuatu are expected to emerge, and damage is expected to hamper relief efforts.

At least 14 people have died following Tuesday's 7.3-magnitude earthquake that caused widespread damage and injured hundreds of people across the South Pacific island nation, and the number is expected to rise, officials said Wednesday.

The head of the International Federation of the Red Cross for the Asia-Pacific region, Katie Greenwood, from Fiji, said it was not clear how many people were still missing.

She added: “We have anecdotal information from people at the search and rescue site who are fairly confident that these numbers will unfortunately rise,” referring to the death toll.

Landslide near the international shipping terminal in Port Vila. Photograph: Dan McGarry/AP

She added that some villages witnessed landslides, adding that communications had not yet been established with the coastal areas close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

She added that it remains to be seen whether Port Vila's downtown area is “just the tip of the iceberg or kind of the same iceberg.”

The airport was closed to commercial flights for 72 hours, with only humanitarian flights allowed to land.

Damage assessments to the airport terminal and runway are due to be carried out on Wednesday and the government said aviation fuel reserves were contaminated by the quake.

New Zealand and Australia prepared aid flights to land on Wednesday, carrying personnel, search and rescue equipment and other relief supplies.

The almost complete collapse of telecommunications meant that little was known about conditions outside the largest city, and people struggled to contact the missing.

Some providers began restarting phone service on Wednesday. Internet service has not been resumed.

Dan McGarry, a journalist living in Vanuatu, said there was a “massive landslide” at the international shipping terminal. The government said the main pier was closed.

A damaged building in Port Vila, Vanuatu, as rescue efforts continue (Tim Cutler via AP)

The earthquake occurred just before one o'clock in the afternoon at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and its epicenter was 30 kilometers west of Port Vila, the largest city in Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands inhabited by about 330,000 people.

A tsunami warning was canceled less than two hours after the earthquake, which was followed by large aftershocks.

A government notice said four deaths were recorded at the main hospital, six in a landslide and four in a collapsed building, but the number is expected to rise. More than 200 wounded were treated at Vila Central Hospital.

At least 10 large buildings and three bridges sustained major structural damage. Water and electricity were cut off throughout Port Vila, with two large water tanks completely destroyed, the National Disaster Management Office notice said.

Clement Chibukolo, World Vision's country director in Vanuatu, said Vila Central Hospital was overwhelmed.

The government said the main building was severely damaged and patients were evacuated to another location.

A building housing a number of diplomatic missions in Port Vila – including the missions of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand – was severely damaged, with part of the building splitting open and the first floor leveled to the ground. The windows were crooked and the walls collapsed.

The US Embassy's Facebook page said all employees were fine, but the building was closed until further notice.

In his first official comments from the country, Prime Minister Charlotte Salway told the Vanuatu Broadcasting Corporation that a state of emergency has been declared and a curfew has been imposed between 6pm and 6am in the worst affected areas.

Residents were earlier urged to stay away from the coast for at least 24 hours, until tsunami and earthquake monitoring systems are operational again.

Vanuatu's location in a subduction zone – where the Indo-Australian tectonic plates move beneath the Pacific plate – means that earthquakes of magnitude greater than 6 are not uncommon, and the country's buildings are designed to withstand earthquake damage. – AP

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