Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Wednesday 13 January 1988, page 5


VANUATU

Appeal for help

after cyclone

VILA, Tuesday (Reuter). — A tropical cyclone has battered Vanuatu, crushing at least 100 homes, and the South Pacific state has asked Australia for help, officials said today.

Vanuatu's National Emergency Committee said 225km/h winds and torrential rains triggering land-slides left hundreds homeless over a wide area of the 70-island chain, 2000km north-east of Australia.

No casualties were reported from Cyclone Anne,

although details were sketchy because of poor com-

munications.

In Canberra, officials said Australia today had dispatched a Hercules aircraft carrying a helicopter to ferry relief supplies to needy areas of Vanuatu, barely

recovered from a storm last February that killed 45.

Cyclone Anne destroyed at least 100 homes on Banks and Torres islands in Vanuatu's north and triggered a landslide on Epi, further south near the

capital, Vanuatu officials said.

Meteorologists said Anne should weaken as it swings southward away from the tropics toward New

Caledonia.