A landslide and flash flood on the Vanuatu island of Ambae is complicating evacuation efforts, with as many as 800 people now sheltering in emergency relief centres.
Ambae Island is home to 11,000 people, and for the second time in six months Manaro volcano on top of Mount Lombenben has started rumbling, spewing torrents of ash, gas and rocks from its crater. The debris is causing breathing and health problems, and threatening livelihoods by burying vegetable plots and crops.
The government has declared a three-month state of emergency while it works with non-governmental organisations to safely evacuate the island and secure new homes for displaced islanders who may never be able to return.
Acting prime minister Jean Pierre Nirua said Vanuatu was the most vulnerable country in the world to natural disasters, and was currently stretched by responding to the clean-up of last month’s cyclone Hola and the unfolding Ambae emergency.
According to the Vanuatu meteorology and geohazards department the volcano remains at level three, with a danger zone surrounding the cone of three kilometres.
Due to eruption activity the cone of the volcano had widened, resulting in ash fall, gas, and acid rain, as well as a heightened risk of landslides and flash floods.
Plantagenet wrote:The last eruption in this area east of Kiluea was in the 1960s---and it went on for months. All the current houses in this area have been built since this time. Whoever was in charge of residential zoning should be prosecuted --- it was very irresponsible to allow houses to be built in this area.
It will be interesting to see if this current eruption is a repeat of the 1960s eruption, or if Kiluea is doing something new.
Cheers!
Its crazy to allow houses to be built anywhere along the east rift zone of Kiluea---the whole area is at extreme risk for lava flows
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
dohboi wrote:Sooo, you're for strong government regulation and against people making money?
Newfie wrote:We visited Monserrat where the town was built on an old ash flow, it was the level ground. They evacuated the southern half of the island. The North half is very steep, they had to build much new housing there. There is nonreal town anymore, just folks living here and there.
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