1News TVNZ published December 17, 2024: Vanuatu quake: Concerns over water supply as search efforts continue. As search efforts continue for those missing in Vanuatu, UNICEF chief of station Eric Durpaire has raised concern over the lack of clean drinking water for some in the wake of yesterday's magnitude 7.3 earthquake.
9 News Australia published December 18, 2024: Vanuatu rocked by second earthquake.
I added the pictures above to this post.
CNN
written by Robert Shackelford, Chris Lau and Kathleen Magramo
Wednesday December 18, 2024
A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit Vanuatu on Tuesday, sparking a network outage, crushing vehicles and damaging multiple buildings, with reports of 14 people killed.
A complex in the capital Port Vila that hosts the diplomatic missions of Western nations, including the United States, was among the buildings damaged.
The quake struck 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) west of the Pacific island nation’s capital at about 57.1 kilometers deep shortly after noon, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was followed by a 5.5-magnitude aftershock.
There have been 14 aftershocks at or above 4.0 magnitude on Tuesday, according to the USGS.
With communications still patchy, the official death toll was not immediately known. But at least 14 people were reportedly killed and 200 have been treated for injuries, according to Katie Greenwood, a Fiji-based regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, citing the government.
China’s ambassador to Vanuatu told state broadcaster CCTV two Chinese citizens died in the quake.
The initial quake caused buildings to collapse, crushing cars, with some feared trapped under the rubble. Landslides occurred near an international shipping terminal at Port Vila, blocking access, according to Reuters.
Hours after the quake hit, crowds began to form outside a hospital waiting to be treated, according to the Associated Press, citing footage from national broadcaster Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation, whose website had gone offline.
Multiple social media videos geolocated by CNN showed damage to a red-and-blue building that houses the US and other Western embassies. One section of the ground floor appeared to have partially collapsed, with debris strewn around the US embassy’s crest and several windows shattered.
“All personnel who were in the US Embassy building, in Vanuatu, are safe and accounted for. While the US Embassy sustained significant damage, all personnel were able to safely evacuate the building,” the US embassy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, said in an update on X.
New Zealand’s foreign ministry confirmed to CNN that the building also houses its High Commission office and the embassies of France and the United Kingdom, saying it had “sustained significant damage.”
Vanuatu is home to about 330,000 people over a group of 80 islands.
Greenwood said the damage was widespread, including collapsed buildings in downtown Port Vila and crippled infrastructure in provincial areas. Red Cross volunteers were ready to help affected communities, she said.
“For the Pacific, it’s the worst … I have seen in terms of earthquake damage,” she told CNN on Tuesday.
Greenwood told CNN’s Rafael Romo on Wednesday that while Vanuatu is a disaster-prone country with a very resilient population, people were shocked by the scale of damage from the quake.
“The current situation on the ground in Vanuatu is very somber. It’s very sad. There’s a lot of grief and shock going on,” she said.
The USGS issues damage predictions, known as pagers, for powerful earthquakes.
The present quake triggered yellow pagers – or a level 2 on a scale of 4 – on both the estimated economic damage and potential for fatalities, the agency said, adding past yellow alerts “have required a local or regional level response.”
“Some casualties and damage are possible, and the impact should be relatively localized,” said the USGS, adding “estimated economic losses are 1-10% GDP of Vanuatu.”
In total, 73,000 people experienced severe shaking. Of those, 36,000 were in Port Vila.
Vanuatu government websites were offline in the aftermath of the quake and phone numbers for the police and other public agencies did not connect, the Associated Press reported. Social media channels for the country’s geohazards agency and the prime minister’s office have not been updated.
Initial tsunami warnings were later canceled.
“There is no longer a tsunami threat from this earthquake,” the National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. But it warned “minor sea level fluctuations may occur in some coastal areas near the earthquake over the next few hours.”
The US opened its Vanuatu embassy in July this year, part of a recent ramping-up of its diplomatic presence in the Pacific as it competes with China for influence in the strategically vital region.
“The opening of the embassy builds upon our efforts to provide more diplomatic presence throughout the region and to engage further with our Pacific neighbors,” the State Department said at the time.
Prior to Vanuatu, the US opened embassies in two other island nations, Solomon Islands and Tonga.
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