FALE VANUATU – SITUATION REPORT
Disaster Type: Earthquake
Situation Report #: 1
Date: 21 December 2024
Provinces affected: SHEFA, Vanuatu
Reporting Period: Wednesday 18th December to Friday 20 December
Overview
On the 17th of December, a 7.3 earthquake hit near the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila
causing major damage. Current advice as at the 20th December from the National
Disaster Management Office is that there have been 46 confirmed deaths, 8 survivors
retrieved from collapsed buildings, and over 210 injured being treated at the main
hospital. It is unknown how many injured are being treated at mobile clinics etc. These
numbers will continue to increase over the coming days. Major structural damage was
sustained to many buildings, roads and bridges and power, water, mobile phone and
internet coverage was also initially virtually all cut off and continues to be majorly
disrupted. Landslides were also experienced in many areas with significant impact. A
State of Emergency was immediately declared throughout the worst affected areas of
Vanuatu for a period of seven days.
On the 18th of December the Vanuatu government formally requested international
support to assist with recovery, particularly with USAR teams on the ground, emergency
medical teams, structural engineers to assess buildings and environmental emergency
specialist. Other identified immediate needs that have been included in NDMO
SitReports include: medical supplies and repairs to damage medical structures, safe
shelter for evacuees, restoration of power and energy supplies to essential services
(clinics and retail shops), restoration of network and communication services, safe
drinking water and jerry cans.
The Vanuatu Government, through the National Disaster Management Office has
activated its National Emergency Operations Centre and implemented its sector-basedcluster mechanisms in WASH, Logistics, Health, Emergency and Telecommunications,
Education and Displacement Evacuation Centre Management
International support has already been committed and is being deployed by
Governments of Australia, New Zealand, France, China amongst others.
In country INGOs such as UNICEF , Red Cross, Save the Children, World Vision, Care
amongst others are also working with the NDMO and cluster approach to provide
assistance to communities.
FALE Pasifika has also immediately reactivated its What’s app group. The group consists
of representatives from each of the six Pacific Fale’s along with international partners. It
is a critical source for confirming the safety of staff, sharing information and resources
across the different coordination mechanisms in Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia and Asia.
FALE Vanuatu which is housed by VANGO in Port Vila, have been connecting with its
community-based partners since soon after the earthquake, despite its own office
being damaged. It’s Steering Committee (SC) are working closely with the government
through the NDMO structure to provide response efforts and develop a clear plan for the
coming days and weeks as response and recovery needs of the population are
identified. At this stage, it is being represented at the WASH cluster meetings. Initial
assessments of the communities of its member organisations have already been
undertaken and will continue over the coming days.
On the 19th December, NDMO confirmed approval for FALE Vanuatu to provide direct
support to its member organisations. Any additional needs identified should be
communicated through the appropriate clusters. Support provided through FALE
members should be recorded on the appropriate NDMO template delivery form.
Immediate Assessments and Need Identification:
From the 19th
• Prima
• Blacksands
• Kokoreko
• Manples
• Beverly Hills
• Etas
• Ekoftau
– 20th of December, the FALE SC visited the following SHEFA communities:
Identified immediate needs from these assessments include:
• Food
• Drinking water
• Solar lights• Shelter
• First aid kits
• Trauma support
Communities also noted safety concerns and particular issues being faced by people
with disabilities.
Table 1 presents the summary information for each community visited.
Other points to note include:
– NDMO has not made needs assessment to any of the communities visited by
FALE Vanuatu
– NDMO SitRep have been delayed in delivery
– External partners are on standby waiting to response with whatever needs arise
– NDMO focus on search and rescue
Next Steps
FALE Vanuatu Steering Committee has developed a proposed budget to expend current
finance FALE facility funds. For these activities, there are 10,000 USD available for the
FALE Finance Facility. This budget will be included as part of the response plan.
FALE Vanuatu has identified further priority needs required to enable it to effectively
contribute to short term recovery efforts. In particular, these include:
• Office space: VANGOs office was structurally damaged during the earthquake.
Youth Challenge facilities are being used on an as needs basis but are not
suitable for a longer-term option
• Transport. FALE/VANGO currently does not have a dedicated car which is
impacting ability to access communities. Instead relies on a few staff personal
cars and partner organisations cars.
• Connectivity. Internet is still not widely available. There is a need for Starlink
services to ensure that
• Depending on office space and amenity, a generator is required to ensure that
FALE can operate effectively at times of disaster when power is out.
• Additional FALE funding to support operations and response activities. The
nature of what it is proposed this would look like is currently in development.
• Development of Standard Operating Procedures to guide recovery efforts
A budget for the above has not yet been developed but will be developed in the coming
weeks.Table 1: Summary Information of Communities Visited by FALE
Community
Organisation
Location Contact Est #
ppl
Identified
priority needs
Notes Identified priority needs
/Action
CDCCC
Kokoreko
Kokoreko
Field
Leila
5145647
700+ people from at-risk communities from Prima and Blacksands have been evac to field with 2
evacuation areas. People sleeping outside in the football/“no word from NDMO”/Kids dehydrated and
traumatized/CDCCC not enough resources/Disability 2x can’t leave
Blacksands/Young girls not feeling safe/Youth security patrol undertaking night shift patrols
Pritano area – not organised
CDCCC
Household items damaged no household damage/Running out of clean drinking water/currently have est 5+ water tanks – not enough andnot yet tested/ food shortages
Needs- Water, food, tents, first aid kits
Tongoa
Shepherds
Association
Manples Alice
7102903
FALE water tanks supplied water for blacksands, manples, prima. Community members not feeling safe with lack of light
Needs- Deliver water, food, Solar lights
Beverly Hills
Ambrym
Community
Beverly
Hills
Margaret
Oli silip aotsaed, oli no fil sef blong ko silip long haos/blacksands, eton, eratap, BV in evacuation
areas
Needs- Work with partner INGOs for provision of trauma support Vanuatu
National
Nakamal
Motiribulbul
Girls and
Womens
Association
Ekoftau
Enivironment
and
Wellbeing
Association
Etas Jane
Gani
900+ people
Needs- Drinking water/trauma
oli no kat wota, ol wota tank I broke mo oli no save drink good
Prima
stage 1
Jane
Iatika
300- 400 people
Access to information/safe clean drinking water
Have not heard from Central Ward
Pres and East Ward Pres to check if they’re okay/neighbours with wells sharing clean water but need their
own water source
Eraser
Bridge
James
Taho
800 people
Needs- Drinking Water/Shelter
Wells are not clean/movement to higher ground slow during tsunami alert/VMF should have moved all
low lying coastal areas to higher ground as soon as tsuamni warning/pop of 800 closely populated/unelco main water still very dirty/2x disability in our community have been injured during earthquake/NDMO have not been around to assess yet
Damaged houses
Misinformation of second
earthquake
Needs- Deliver water, Work with partner INGOs for provision of trauma support
Connect support to comms cluster, deliver water
Data to share with UNICEF/Shelter cluster, deliver water