Disaster: Tsunami: 1,000-islands chain in SouthWest Pacific recovers slowly, miraculously from natural event

ReliefWeb's Amy Bennett reports "Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea reeling from recent tsunami" (Apr5,2k7):

New York, USA – A strong undersea earthquake that struck the South Pacific this week left the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea directly in the path of a deadly tsunami, which swept through coastal villages killing at least 34 and leaving many more homeless.

More than 900 homes were destroyed and reports tell of entire villages being washed away. Aerial surveillance revealed flattened homes and people wandering along the coast. Roads were clogged with debris and boats that had been hurled ashore.

UNICEF and its partners responded within hours of the 8.1 earthquake and tsunami with pre-positioned emergency medical supplies for up to 10,000 people.

UNICEF is working to distribute medical kits including emergency drugs, to provide immunisation against measles for children aged six to 59 months, as well as Vitamin A supplementation. Water tanks and food sources have been destroyed so meeting the basic needs of many of the displaced will be a challenge.

With some 5,500 people displaced, families will be vulnerable to hunger and the spread of disease. Lack of access to safe water is a serious concern. Standing water is an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and malaria is endemic in the area.

In collaboration with partners and the authorities, UNICEF will assess the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure and coordinate the distribution of water purification tablets, jerry cans and water tanks, and hygiene kits as well as the establishment of latrines and water points as necessary.

Aid workers in some areas have pointed out that relief efforts are lacking in resources while the risks to health and human life are mounting.

In any disaster, it is children who suffer most. Of the estimated 50,000 people affected by this crisis, approximately nearly 30,000 are children, and 15,000 are under the age of five. Vulnerable to hunger, disease and trauma, children and women in the affected areas require urgent life-saving assistance to survive.

Three days later,AP via International Herald Tribune describes the damage in the Solomon Islands's main center Gizo, "Among Solomon Islands' debris, an open-air maternity ward continues to operate" (Apr8,2k7). The reporter interlaces a family's personal ordeal amidst a fact-filled overview of the situation which resulted in at least 28 deaths, but not the wipe-out many feared.

GIZO, Solomon Islands: As flies buzzed around a basket of bloody gauze, Moana Saito nursed her newborn daughter, delivered in an open-air maternity ward near the center of the Solomon Islands' earthquake and tsunami disaster.

"It's lucky it's not raining," said the attending nurse, Vaelin Gagahe, who delivered Saito's baby on Saturday. The nurse has delivered three babies in two days in the makeshift network of tarpaulins and tents that has sprung up to replace Gizo's hospital, partially destroyed by the tsunami last Monday.

Health officials warn that without proper sanitation, the number of child deaths in the disaster zone could rise significantly. Unhygienic conditions and a lack of clean water have contributed to isolated cases of diarrhea and dysentery in some refugee camps. International aid workers were scrambling to dig latrines and set up water purifiers.

Last week, the United Nations warned that up to 30,000 children could be affected by the disaster, including 15,000 under the age of five.

"These children are highly vulnerable to hunger, disease and the disruption of their normal lives and protective social systems, and require urgent lifesaving assistance to survive," the UN said in a statement.

SW Pacific > Solomons & Papua NG

Saito's husband, a ship captain, was helping to unload relief supplies from a boat that arrived in Gizo early Saturday and had not yet seen his daughter, the couple's first surviving child. They had a boy in 2004, but he died shortly after birth.

The 23-year-old mother went into labor just before dawn in the hillside camp where she and hundreds of others have taken refuge away from their low-lying homes, many of which were badly damaged by the 8.1 magnitude quake and the killer waves that followed.

Saito's home was only partially damaged, but like many others, she has been afraid to return because of the many aftershocks - including several registering magnitude 6 or higher - that have shook the region since last Monday.

She and her husband have no tent, and have been sleeping in the open air. She is not sure whether they will return home now that their baby daughter has arrived.

According to the UN, an average of 20 children die per 1,000 live births in the Solomons - a rate that exceeds many South Pacific nations, but is well below that of neighboring Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

There were no official estimates of the number of diarrhea and dysentery cases. Stefan Knollmeyer of an Australian aid group, AusAID, said he was optimistic that basic sanitation measures - like pit toilets, water purification tablets and soap - could contain the problem.

The United Nations has set the death toll from the disaster last Monday at 34 people, while the Solomons' official toll is 28. However, many villagers have been burying the dead as they find them, and some deaths may never be reported to officials.

Knollmeyer said the current estimates seemed accurate based on AusAID's survey so far.

He said that up to 7,000 people had been left homeless by the disaster, far fewer than originally feared. Last week, the premier of Western Province, Alex Lokopio, said that as many as 40,000 of the region's 90,000 people may have lost their homes.

Meanwhile, aid continued to flow into the region after days of delays caused by transport bottlenecks and government bureaucracy.

Two large boats docked in Gizo early Saturday carrying supplies and about two dozen troops from Australia and New Zealand, including five medics and six sanitation experts.

More than 2,500 tarpaulins and 1.2 tons of rice have been distributed to the camps around Gizo and some of the surrounding islands, with more supplies on the way.

Relief has been slow to reach the region's outlying islands, however, and villagers have complained that they are running low on food, shelter and other emergency supplies.

At least one island was raised out of its seabed by the underwater earthquake, reports The Times of India (Apr8,2k7):

RANONGGA, SOLOMON ISLANDS: The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs.

In an instant, the grinding of the Earth's tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres (10 feet).

Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lay exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass, which is 32-kilometres (20-miles) long and 8-kilometres (5-miles) wide.

Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island.

After the havoc wreaked in recent years affecting many nations, principallly Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Aceh, Indonesia, and more recetnly Japan, the word "tsunami" has come to signify massive numbers of deaths as a result of earthquakes, tidal waves, and floods. It seems the Solomons and Papua New Guinea have been spared the worst, but bad is bad enuff.