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“The whole earth began to ripple.”
A number of New Zealanders have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake rocked the Pacific island nation earlier this week.
The death toll remains unclear, although at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from the Vanuatu government.
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake occurred on Tuesday, injuring more than 200 people.
A flight carrying 93 passengers, almost all New Zealanders and their families, left Port Vila at about 7.45pm New Zealand time, the New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) said late last night.
“A small number of foreign nationals are also being assisted on this flight,” New Zealand Forces said.
Pacific correspondent Barbara Drever reported that researchers are racing against time to find survivors under the rubble. (Source: Iftar)
Foreign Secretary Winston Peters confirmed the flight's arrival overnight.
“We are pleased to have 93 people evacuated from Port Vila on the NZDefenceForce flight overnight,” he wrote on X at around 5.30am this morning.
“Most of the passengers were New Zealanders and their families, but they also included about a dozen foreign nationals from Samoa, the United Kingdom, Singapore, France and Finland.
“Our consular team continues to assist New Zealanders affected by the earthquake in Vanuatu.”
Any Kiwis still in Vanuatu are urged to contact MFAT on +64 99 20 20 20.
“New Zealand's efforts to assist Vanuatu in its earthquake response, by providing personnel and relief supplies, are continuing,” Peters said.
Australian couple describe store flattened 'like a deck of cards'
Australian couple Susie Nealon and her partner Tony Ferreira told 1News about the “chaos” that occurred inside the Billabong store when the quake struck.
“It started shaking a little bit and I looked up at the ceiling and saw that the ceiling was starting to sway on the fluorescent light. But it wasn't just a tremor, it wasn't shaking left or right anymore, it was the whole floor. It started swaying,” Ferreira said.
“The whole roof collapsed…it looked like a deck of cards. [It came] Straight down, everything is flattened.
“The force of it pushed all the windows and the glued glass directly into the road because of all that weight,” he said.
At least 16 people have died after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific island nation on Tuesday. (Source: 1 News)
He said there were about six or seven others in the store with them at the time, and said the pair only came out “literally in seconds.”
“If my shelf had been a few more meters away, there would have been no chance,” he said. “It was that fast. There was no warning.”
Nealon said the aftershocks were really impactful, and once she felt something, she was “straight out the door.”
“Nobody has a chance if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
Kiwi helps in Vanuatu
Kiwi Jason Horan, who lives in Port Vila, told 1News it was “just chaos” in the aftermath of the quake.
“there [were] “People were lying on the ground everywhere, and buildings were falling down, so it was very scary.”
He said he saw the road moving “like a wave.”
Since the earthquake, Horan said he has been helping others simply because he wanted to.
“I've been running around everywhere, just trying to get everyone food and water. So I go to every hotel and resort to make sure they know who to talk to and things like that.”
He said he wanted to do his part to “make sure people are okay.”
“All the locals are pulling together though…they're resilient, so that's really good.”
1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Drever is in Vanuatu. She told Breakfast this morning that aftershocks were still shaking the country, making search efforts more difficult.
“Our team has teamed up with the Australians to make the most of this very small window they now have to find survivors.
“Time is not on their side, so they have to make the most of it,” she added.
“The situation remains very volatile, we have spoken to some very distressed people who are trying to return to their homes.”
New Zealand's High Commissioner on the earthquake and what comes next
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Vanuatu, Nikki Symonds, said the New Zealand High Commission was on the top floor of a three-storey concrete building.
“I was in my office at the time [of the quake]“So this is as far in/out as possible,” she said.
“So you follow your student's training and then get under the table, holding on to her while she jumps around a lot. There's a lot of noise.”
She said there was dust everywhere when the shaking stopped. She tried to check on a colleague.
“The building was very close to her office, and it was completely detached. There was a three-storey landing.”
Everyone was able to get out of the building, Simmonds said. She added that communication was the biggest challenge in the beginning.
“Now, you are making sure that safe drinking water, power and basic infrastructure are up and running.”
Simmonds said the impact was “very localized”, based on aerial monitoring.
“It's a big, important event in Port Vila, but there don't seem to be villages buried by landslides elsewhere, so that was a big relief.”
The response, she said, is “the kind of job that rises, peaks and changes.”
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