PORT VILA (AFP) – Overseas rescuers joined a hunt for survivors in the rubble of shattered buildings in earthquake-struck Vanuatu yesterday, with officials saying the toll of nine dead is set to rise.
More than 100 personnel, along with rescue gear, dogs and aid supplies, were being flown on military transport planes from Australia and New Zealand to the capital Port Vila.
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck off the Pacific nation’s main island on Tuesday, flattening multi-storey concrete buildings, cracking walls and bridges, damaging water supplies and knocking out most mobile networks.
Vanuatu has declared a seven-day state of emergency “due to the severe impacts”, along with a curfew from 6pm-6am.
Civilians joined in the immediate rescue effort despite multiple aftershocks shaking the low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people, which lies in the quake-prone Pacific Rim of Fire. AFP photos showed rescuers working with mechanical diggers at night to save people in one large building, all its floors pancaked into a flat pile of concrete.
Rescuers were focused on searching for people in two collapsed buildings in Port Vila, said Glen Craig of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council.
“We know people are trapped and some have been rescued, and there have also been fatalities,” he told AFP. “My good friend that was killed in the earthquake – the funeral is at 2pm today – but I have also got to think about the other 300,000 people in Vanuatu,” Craig said.
Australia’s government flew in a 64-person disaster response team equipped with two dogs, along with six medics, nine police and emergency response managers. “Australia’s emergency crews are now on the ground in Vanuatu following the devastating earthquake,” said Foreign Minister Penny Wong. A government – organised flight has also repatriated 148 Australians, she said.
New Zealand is flying in 37 people, mostly search-and-rescue specialists, government officials said. A separate C-130 military transport plane with 18 personnel, rescue equipment and disaster supplies landed yesterday.
Nine people have been confirmed dead by Port Vila’s hospital and that number is likely to rise, according to the latest update by Vanuatu’s disaster management office.
Two of the dead were Chinese citizens and one French, their embassies have said.
The quake caused “major structural damage” to more than 10 buildings including the main hospital, it said, while also hitting three bridges, power lines, water reserves and mobile communications.
The shipping port is closed following a “major landslide”.
French engineers have declared Port Vila’s airport runway operational, although it has not re-opened to commercial flights.
The death toll will “definitely go up”, said Craig of the Vanuatu business council. However the country and its people depended on tourism and agriculture, he warned.
“We can’t have an economic disaster on top of a natural disaster,” Craig said.
