TC Harold response benefits from preparedness efforts - Vanuatu

Above: Sanma Provincial Emergency Operating Centre (PEOC) operational room was upgraded in March 2020 with support from Disaster READY. The next month this room was the centre of TC Harold response operations. Image: Joana Halili, World Vision Vanuatu.

The year 2020 has been a challenging one for the people of Santo Island in Vanuatu’s Sanma Province. Less than four weeks following the WHO declation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tropical Cyclone (TC) Harold hit Santo and the surrounding islands in the north of the country with full force.

A category 5 cyclone, TC Harold sustained winds of approximately 215 kilometres per hour near its centre, making it one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall in Vanuatu. Santo was hardest hit, with houses and livelihoods destroyed, communication lines cut and entire communities isolated due to debris-laden roads.

A couple of months earlier World Vision had supported an upgrade of the government’s Sanma Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) as part of its AHP Disaster READY Vanuatu activities.  The upgrade included electronic screens, cyclone tracking maps, filing cabinets, whiteboards, stationery, computers and laminated copies of roles and responsibilities for each function.

“Before the upgrade, our systems were very basic, and it affected coordination in all areas. After the upgrade, we saw a response to TC Harold that was more coordinated and efficient than we saw during the last major disaster, which was the Ambae volcano evacuation,” said PEOC Provincial Disaster Officer Mr Kensly Micah.

Above: Sanma Provincial Government planner, Georgina Faerua, with the Provincial Disaster Response Plan. Photo credit: Mike Kaun, World Vision Vanuatu.

Also through Disaster READY, World Vision had worked with the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and Save the Children to draft a standard operations plan for the Sanma PEOC to use during disasters.

“This was the first time we used the plan, so we learnt a lot. We are grateful to have reached all 19,361 households in distributions and we were able to attend to critical needs that needed urgent attention in the province after TC Harold in a timely manner,” said Mr Micah.

The effective of disaster preparedness efforts is best put to the test in a disaster and a category 5 tropical cyclone against the backdrop of a pandemic provided this opportunity. With the Sanma PEOC reporting that they were better able to respond to TC Harold due to being more organised, equipped and prepared - the Disaster READY efforts in the Province have translated into a more organised, better equipped and timely response effort.