Tropical Cyclone Harold has weakened after rolling over northern Vanuatu with 235km per hour winds, amid coronavirus state of emergency.
In Luganville. the Northern Region Academy building was open to Vanuatu football staff and families and the public living around Chapui area.
However in the outskirts and outer islands, the cyclone reduced entire villages to ruins and wreaked havoc telecommunications from the provinces of Torba, Sanma, Penama to Malampa.
Technicians are working around the clock on geting the provinces back online but the scale of the damage done by the cyclone is starting to emerge but communication issues to many areas already sums up the devastation caused to the northern region.
The eye of the monster system travelled directly over Luganville, the country’s second biggest settlement, with 17,000 people.
No reports of fatalities, but many houses in Luganville have been damaged.
Pictures emerged online showing waves pounding on vessels taking shelter in the nearby island of Aore.
Luganville is the only port capable of handling large-scale shipping and it is also the northern region’s economic hub.
There is now an anxious wait for communications to be restored and weather conditions to calm down to allow assessment teams to go to the hardest-hit regions.
Here are some pics from social media of the damages done in Santo rural, Luganville town hall, Malo, Malekula and Pentecost Island.
