Vanuatu earthquake: Australians evacuated from their homes

A spokesman said the death toll was “expected to rise” as people remained trapped in collapsed buildings. About 200 people were treated for their injuries.

Among the dead was a young mother fresh from a nine-month stint in Queensland. Rodney Prestia, chief executive of labor hire company iComply, told AAP the 26-year-old woman, whom he identified only as Valerie, was crushed in the collapsed building.

He added: “It is a real tragedy, and our team has been severely shocked by it.”

Rescuers search for survivors in Port Vila. Image source: Vanuatu Police Force/Anadolu via Getty Images

French Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Jean-Jean Villemer confirmed on Thursday the death of French citizen Vincent Guiset, a resident of Vanuatu, who was killed under the rubble of a collapsed building in the city center, he said in a Facebook post.

China's official Xinhua News Agency, citing Gu Zihua, an official at the Chinese embassy in Vanuatu, reported that two of the dead were Chinese citizens. No deaths have been reported in Australia.

The almost complete collapse of telecommunications has left people struggling to ensure the safety of their relatives. Some providers began to re-establish telephone service, but communications were patchy.

The phone operator said that internet service was not restored due to a damaged underwater data cable.

Terrifying shake

Australian Ivan Oswald owns a café in Port Vila. He was at home with his two children and three of their friends enjoying a game when the earthquake struck.

He said: “We heard a big earthquake and we are used to it now. You can feel it coming… but it got worse quickly.” “I took the children and entered the corridor with reinforced walls. The children were shaken, they did not know what was happening. They were completely terrified.

He added: “Oswald, who has lived in Vanuatu since 2002, and his family were unharmed. Footage taken from his café showed his staff and customers running from the building as the quake threw heavy refrigerators around the building and sent debris flying.”

Screenshot from CCTV footage taken at Ivan Swald Nambawan Cafe in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

The Billabong store, which was located near Oswald's Café, was razed. The employees working at the café at the time were unharmed, but with most communications still out, Oswald was unable to confirm whether his other workers were safe.

Most people we know have neither electricity nor water. “We have opened the café to provide free food and drinks to emergency services.”

Oswald said local residents were resilient, but many were eager to connect with loved ones. He offers internet in his café to anyone who needs it.

“I'm talking to a lot of locals and expats and we're just trying to get back to normal. A lot of people were in shock, and a lot of people here are just trying to help. We can't sit idly by and do nothing.”

Australian personnel arrive in Vanuatu to assist with relief work.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the people of Vanuatu had a long road to recovery.

“Australia stands ready to provide further assistance to our Pacific family in their time of need,” he wrote on X's website.

Other countries have also offered support, with a US military plane expected to arrive on Thursday, while France sent a military helicopter equipped with satellite communications and military engineers.

The arrival of a New Zealand rescue team was delayed until Thursday after their military flight on Wednesday evening was diverted to New Caledonia due to an engine fire warning, New Zealand media reported.

“It's getting stronger and stronger”

Tim Cutler, the president of the Vanuatu cricket team who grew up in Sydney, said he was having lunch at the Coffee Tree cafe in the city center when the huge quake shook surrounding buildings.

“The first tremor was not a strange feeling for anyone who had spent a lot of time in Vanuatu. You get frequent shivers,” he told AAP.

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“But it got stronger and stronger, so I went from an ‘oh’ moment to an ‘oh no’ moment.”

“Things were flying, and I was lucky I didn't get hit by anything. A couple of the people I was with had some bruises, some were screaming, others were calm, and a few people were running around.

“A water tank fell and rolled onto a lady hiding under a table…it was just surreal slow motion [that felt] Somewhere between a dream, a movie, or an amusement park.

Rebecca Olul, a child protection officer at UNICEF, said she had gone out for lunch and was leaving a café when the quake struck, causing her to fall to the ground.

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“I was next to a three-storey building, so when I fell, the immediate thing I did was look up and hope it didn't fall on me,” she told AAP.

The UNICEF office in Port Vila, housed in a six-storey building, was damaged, but all 19 staff members escaped injury.

Olul said she was driving around the city and people were still sitting in parks and under trees, afraid of aftershocks that might cause more collapses.

Rodney Prestia, who pivoted his business to workers in the Pacific when backpackers stopped arriving due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said he had worked with more than 1,000 “amazing” workers from Vanuatu.

He said any Australian wanting to help Vanuatu should visit the Melanesian paradise when conditions allowed.

“It's two and a half hours away. It's pristine,” he said.

AAP, AP, Reuters, with Jessica McSweeney

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