Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. Embassy reportedly suffered severe damage during a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on the Pacific Island of Vanuatu near Australia.
- Video circulating on social media showed “buckled windows and collapsed concrete pillars on a building hosting foreign missions in the capital, including the U.S., British, French and New Zealand embassies.”
- A spokesperson for New Zealand’s foreign ministry said in a statement the country’s “High Commission building, which is co-located with the United States, the French and the United Kingdom, has sustained significant damage.”
- Vanuatu had been a colony of the British and the French until 1980 when it gained independence and became an independent republic.
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Mathew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Important Takeaways:
- Vanuatu gets back-to-back earthquakes, cyclone
- The Pacific nation experienced an initial 6.5 magnitude quake, followed by an aftershock.[5.4] A state of emergency has been declared amid the threat of Cyclone Kevin.
- The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat from the initial quake.
- Just a couple of days ago, strong winds and rain from Cyclone Judy had lashed Vanuatu. Electricity and communications in the island nation are still affected.
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Cyclone Pam slowly churned over Vanuatu with violence so intense that it completely destroyed all buildings on some of the nation’s outer islands.
Relief workers are reporting entire towns flattened and widespread destruction. They say that it could be weeks before the number of dead can be counted. Radio and telephone communications have been down hampering rescue and relief efforts.
Survivors in outer islands have had to flash light using mirrors or have created giant letter “H”s from debris to get the attention of passing aircraft.
Australian foreign minster Julie Bishop said that flyovers of military aircraft make it appear that more than 80 percent of homes have been completely destroyed throughout the island nation.
“We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation,” Bishop said. “Not only buildings flattened — palm plantations, trees. It’s quite a devastating sight.”
Officials in the nation’s capital of Port Vila say that 90 percent of the town has been destroyed and that the airport is so badly damaged planes cannot currently land. The city’s hospital survived but only one doctor survived the storm.
The South Pacific island of Vanuatu has been hammered by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam.
The Island has faced 165 m.p.h. winds from one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded east of Australia. The eye of the storm passed over Vanuatu on March 13th around 4:05 a.m., the first category 5 to make landfall since the devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013.
Reports say that Efate Island, the most populated in Vanuatu, has suffered extreme damage from the storm. There has been no confirmed reports of deaths, injuries, or missing.
Port Vila, located on the southwest part of the island, did not get hit by the storm’s eye and was able to stay online throughout most of the storm’s move over the Island. The last recording sent by a weather station at the port showed almost 4.7 inches of rain from the storm.
Four tropical cyclones are currently spinning in the Pacific including one just off the western coast of Australia.
