Cyclone Harold in Vanuatu
Cyclone Harold a category 5 cyclone tracked across the southern-tip of Vanuatu with wind speeds of over 130mph. Vanuatu was already in a state of emergency as it prepares for the coronavirus outbreak.
Tens of thousands of people have been affected, with many on the island of Santo moving into sheltered accommodation. Social distancing measures have been relaxed by the government so people could be evacuated safely.
The strong winds have brought down many trees and damaged hectares of crops. Communications to Santo and Malekula [Vanuatu's two largest islands] have been cut off. Flash flooding is also a problem in some areas. The Vanuatu meteorology and geo-hazards department warned that the seas are "very rough to phenomenal".
Recovery efforts will be hampered by the restrictions on international travel due to the coronavirus. Humanitarian workers are not able to travel to Vanuatu as they would be required to do 14 days quarantine.
Related News and Resources
- Type of event
- Storm
- Location of event
- Vanuatu
- Date of Charter Activation
- 2020-04-03
- Time of Charter Activation
- 16:52
- Time zone of Charter Activation
- UTC+02:00
- Charter Requestor
- UNITAR on behalf of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) | Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) Direction de la sécurité civile et de la gestion des risques on behalf of Gouvernement de Vanuatu et de ses services
- Activation ID
- 647
- Project Management
- UNITAR/UNOSAT
- Value Adding
- -