21 Mar 2011

Vanuatu disaster officials say emergency food held up by bad weather

5:08 pm on 21 March 2011

Vanuatu's Disaster Management office says it's waiting for a break in the weather before it can send over-due food supplies to the east of Tanna island which was hit by damaging cyclones.

Food gardens were badly affected by Cyclones Vania and Atu earlier this year in parts of the southern Tafea province.

Peter Korisa from the National Disaster Management Office says they sent food on a ship to Tanna late last month but they had to cancel the sailing to the eastern part of the island when bad weather set in.

He says the food is still available.

"The quantities are still in Tanna, we stored them in the storage and then we can distribute. There were around households, members around White Sands area, it's around 2000 something, so we need to match-up the rest."

Peter Korisa says they're hoping to get the rations to the east of the island next week when the weather clears.