Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/PORT VILA: The South Pacific Ocean nation of Vanuatu was put on a state of emergency on Friday after being hit by several earthquakes and cyclones. The United States (US) Geological Survey said that the initial 6.5-magnitude quake struck at 1804 GMT off the island of Espiritu Santo in the north of an archipelago at a depth of 10 kilometers,
With a magnitude of 5.4, the aftershock rocked an island shortly after. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said that there was “no tsunami threat” from the quake.
Cyclone Kevin
With Cyclone Kevin raging, government spokesman Joe Harry Karu told AFP that the council of ministers has declared a state of emergency. Pacific Red Cross spokesman Soneel Ram said that no casualties had so far been reported.
When the earthquakes struck on Friday, locals were hunkering as fierce winds from the cyclone tore roofs from buildings and uprooted trees.Only two days earlier, Cyclone Judy was lashed Vanuatu with winds up to 200 kilometers per hour.
Torrential rain was flooded roads while communications and electricity are still affected across the island nation, home to 320,000. Dickinson Tevi, secretary-general of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society, warned of the possibility of critical damage.
Tevi told the AFP that “People on (Espiritu) Santo felt the earthquake but could not go outside to assess the damage because of the high winds”
