Twelve days ago, Hurricane Funa passed through the northern islands of Vanuatu, heading east towards Fiji. There was some damage in the northern islands but the government has not been able to fully assess all the damages due to limited communication with some of the villages. Assemblies of God Relief sent medical supplies right after the storm anticipating that there would be an increase of malaria and other sicknesses after so much rain.
Tomorrow, Hurricane Gene is arriving from Fiji and is currently heading towards the southern islands of Vanuatu. I guess that is only fair, since we recently sent them a storm, they are sending us one back. The water bottles are filled and we will take all the necessary precautions again. This storm has been upgraded to a category 3 Tropical cyclone so it could do much damage on the southern islands of Tanna and Aneityum, although here on Efate we will not be directly in its path. There is a map on our “About Vanuatu” page.
Normally in Vanuatu, the hurricane/cyclone season lasts from November to May. This storm season started in October 2007 and has been forecasted to stay active until October 2008! So we will have a full twelve month hurricane season, this due to weather pattern changes in the Pacific and global warming!
Vision for Vanuatu 