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.