Transcript
JACQUELINE JOHNSTON: It's the east coast of New Caledonia, out in what we call the North Province about three hours away from Noumea. But as I was saying before, landslides like that have never happened before. But I must say that we've had rain in Houailou - the place is called Houailou - in 24 hours in what they usually have in a month's time. So it was very huge rainfalls.
JAMIE TAHANA: And what is the extent of the damage that's been done? There's five people dead, four missing.
JJ: Exactly. Houailou has quite a few different tribes and in one of the tribes it was a family. There were five houses and the five houses were under the landslide. So we have five people dead, unfortunately. We still have three missing which we have not very much hope to find alive now and the place is completely - it's just like after a very heavy cyclone, you wouldn't recognise the place.
JT: What about water supplies, crops and stuff? Is there a need for a response and is that happening?
JJ: Well we actually, the French Red Cross, have people trained to make water when the water is missing. So we've got our staff there and also the New Caledonian people in charge of the water supplies are working there too, so progressively water is coming back in most places.
JT: The area where this landslide has happened, the land was very weak because of mining and such, are you able to explain more?
JJ: Well this is one of the options that the people there were picking yesterday. There was a mine there quite a few years ago, but also there's been a lot of bushfires and not many trees remain which means that the soil just went down - there was nothing to stop it.
JT: Has the rain stopped? Is there likely to be further damage?
JJ: No, no, no. Fortunately the rain has stopped and now we only have to try and help these unfortunate people to try and find the people missing and after then rebuild their houses. But the mayor of Houailou yesterday was saying that they would try and build again in a different spot because apparently they've had floods before and they will probably need to move these people to a place further up the mountain.
JT: How many people live in this area that have been affected, that are either homeless now or need assistance?
JJ: These families was about ten people, but altogether it would be over 300 people. Between three and five hundred people have been affected.
