Cyclone Pam.

[ice-is-forming]

They started talking about Cyclone Pam last week. It got named a Category 5+ nuclear size Cyclone and it turned out to be the largest Cyclone to be recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. It hit Vanuatu full on at the weekend.

Aid agencies said conditions in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu are among the most challenging they have ever faced with the severe storm tearing through the island nation, wiping out villages and displacing thousands & killing many. The Island is flattened.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-16/vanuatu-cyclone-pam-death-toll-to-rise/6321522

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Read a book about Vanuatu a couple of years ago. It portrayed life there as hardscrabble at the best of times.

 

[Teaboy]

Yeah it's big news over here in the UK as well, it sounds horrendous. The aid effort is beginning to get mobilized, I imagine given the location of the Islands OZ and NZ are going to be leading the effort for some time.

 

[StoneRoad]

From the BBC coverage I've seen so far - I would say that "devastation" is no understatement.
Hopefully, more than enough aid will be quickly forthcoming.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The president of Vanuatu has warned that climate change is contributing to more extreme weather conditions, as the first rescue teams to reach outlying islands on the nation warned of very significant damage from cyclone Pam, amid worries the death toll could rise significantly. ....

Lonsdale said the cyclone seasons that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change.

“We see the level of sea rise … The cyclone seasons, the warm, the rain, all this is affected ,” he said. “This year we have more than in any year … Yes, climate change is contributing to this.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ent-blames-climate-change-for-extreme-weather

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

From the BBC coverage I've seen so far - I would say that "devastation" is no understatement.
Hopefully, more than enough aid will be quickly forthcoming.

They better bring water. From what I recall fresh water is something of challenge there and they rely on water catchment systems. With all the devastation, the water catchment systems were probably the first to go.

 

[StoneRoad]

The rain from "Pam" might have accumulated in some places, but I agree; drinking water, food, medicine and shelter are all priorities for relief supplies. Hope that there is somewhere for planes to land.
At least the landscape is not covered in the black mud that a tsunami often deposits.

 

[ice-is-forming]

the organisation that i work for have this amazing water purifier! i cant remember the stats but they're ridiculous. This little machine the size of an office photocopier outputs litres of clean water per minute. So we'll have that there. There have been 4 cyclones in the past few weeks.. lam, marcie, nathan & pam.

 

[brix_kitty]

the organisation that i work for have this amazing water purifier! i cant remember the stats but they're ridiculous. This little machine the size of an office photocopier outputs litres of clean water per minute. So we'll have that there.

That's - does it work on salt water? Just wondered as BBC were reporting some islanders are resorting to drinking salt water.

 

[ice-is-forming]

That's - does it work on salt water? Just wondered as BBC were reporting some islanders are resorting to drinking salt water.

yep, theres a couple

"The Advanced Emergency Disaster Relief Mobile Seawater Desalination Reverse Osmosis Watermaker from Ampac USA is capable of converting 100,000 Gallons of Seawater to Pure Drinking Water on a daily basis (which actually comes down to 387m³/day)*

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...oss-society-to-provision-water-300037911.html

http://www.redcross.int/en/eric/eric/screen tome 1/09WATscreen/387KWATTREAUNITIW6.pdf