31 Dec 2002

Weekend hailstorm causes havoc in Vanuatu

4:35 pm on 31 December 2002

Vanuatu's Emergency and Disaster office says that nearly 3-thousand people on southern Tanna will need food and shelter because of a devastating hailstorm which destroyed over 50 percent of their food gardens, Sunday night.

Damage reports say that the hailstorm also triggered up to 1-thousand landslides, and destroyed up to 80 percent of all road crossings on the densely populated island.

An expatriate couple were rescued alive by villagers after they were buried in their house by a mud slide.

The meterological department says that the hail were the size of golf balls and that there was no explanation for the weekend storm.

It's lead forecaster, William Worwor says that this is the first time that Vanuatu has seen a hailstorm.

"It's totally unexpected, it's our rainy season and not that I know that there is hailstorm being observed over the southern islands or any part of the Vanuatu group. It is not normal and it's unusual for a hailstorm to fall over any of the islands of Vanuatu but you never know and also the climate is changing so there is a possibility that hailstorms be observed in Vanuatu."

William Worwor of Vanuatu's Metereological Service.

Meanwhile, Torba province in the northern part of the country was battered with devastating waves triggered by Cyclone Zoe.

Radio reports say that giant waves advanced 200 metres inland destroying villages.

No casualties were reported.