Vanuatu TC Lola 2023
2023-12 Factsheet - Vanuatu TC Lola 2023
Highlights
On the night of October 25th, Tropical Cyclone Lola moved across the eastern coasts of Maewo and Pentecost islands as a Category 4 cyclone, with destructive winds of 205 kilometers per hour and subsequent flooding and coastal inundation.
An estimated 200,000 people felt the cyclone's impact, with 107,500 people (21,500 households) directly affected, representing nearly half of Vanuatu's population.
The Shelter Cluster is led by the National Disaster Management Office with Vanuatu Red Cross Society as co-lead. The cluster was promptly convened, and the Vanuatu government declared a six-month state of emergency on October 27th for the heavily impacted provinces of Torba, Penama, Malampa, and Shefa.
TC Lola, the third cyclone in 2024 to impact Vanuatu arrived outside the cyclone season and as experts from the Fiji Meteorological Service warn of increased risk of tropical cyclone activity across the region response stakeholders are coming under increasing pressure.
With support from IFRC shelter cluster surge support the main outputs of the coordination team are as follows:
- Identifcation of target Area Councils for each partner.
- Support to production of 5Ws, sitreps and maps.
- Identification of gaps and provision of suppor.t
- Development of SCV preparedness plan.
- Support to NDMO upgrade Assessment process.
- Support to VRCS development of TC Lola Recovery Plan.
Shelter Cluster agencies involved in this response conducting assessments, distributing relief stocks, and conducting shelter training & awareness include CARE Vanuatu, Vanuatu Red Cross Society (VRCS), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Save the Children, Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), World Vision Vanuatu (WVV) and Butterfly Trust.
NFI
Shelter
Need analysis
Three priority levels were decided by NDMO with the islands of Pentecost, South Maewo, Ambrym, North Epi, and East Malekula being classified as priority one.
Assessments by NDMO and implementing agencies identified 3750 destroyed houses and 3910 severely damaged houses.
Response
Based on information from implementing partners uploaded to the live 5W spreadsheet 10,826 emergency shelter items, including tarpaulins, shelter toolkits with tools and fixings for repairs, and 6,806 essential household items (NFI) comprised of kitchen sets, sleeping mats, and blankets, were distributed reaching a total of 17,671 households.
Gaps / challenges
Meeting beneficiary needs in some remote communities required resource-intensive efforts by helicopter or on foot.
Emergency shelter items were scarce (and remain scare) within the country
Many tarpaulins and tool kits have been delivered in response to cyclones of increasing frequency – in some areas possibly reaching saturation point. Ways and means to provide a wider range of options for disaster affected households are being actively discussed in Vanuatu.
Towards the conclusion of the emergency relief phase gap analysis identified target beneficiaries as people remaining in evacuation centres. Two implementing agencies are providing working with a shelter cluster implementing partner to reach out to these 500 households.
