A tropical cyclone killed at least six people in Vanuatu, UNICEF said Saturday, confirming first casualties from one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall.
Aid workers fear many more fatalities once outlying areas can be reached. The confirmed deaths came only from the capital, Port Vila.
UNICEF: Storm was a 'terrifying' occurrence 03:09
Only a little information has so far trickled out from beyond the capital, but Sune Gudnitz, regional head for U.N. aid agency OCHA told CNN from Fiji, about 600 miles away, that he fears the worst.
"Unfortunately, the more that comes out, the worse it looks," said Gudnitz. "I should say it's really a case of the worst-case scenario for the country and for the people."
His agency has had word of much destruction on Efate, the island that houses the capital, where Pam's eye roared through, and from the southern island of Tanna, he said.
But many areas remain out of contact.
Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale, who was at a U.N. conference on disaster reduction in Japan on Saturday, appealed for help for his shattered nation.
"I am speaking with you today with a heart that is so heavy. I do not really know what impact Cyclone Pam had left on Vanuatu, as there are no confirmed reports as yet," he said.
"I stand to appeal on the behalf of the government and people of Vanuatu to the global community to give a lending hand in responding this very current calamities that have struck us."
'Unbelievable destruction'
Pam had churned through the South Pacific with the might of a Category 5 hurricane before notching down to Category 4 after landfall at 11:23 p.m. Friday local time. CNN's Weather Center said 155 mph (250 kmh) winds blasted the island nation.
Tropical Cyclone Pam hits Vanuatu10 photos
There were gusts up to 200 mph (325 kmh). And the cyclone's damage has stunned relief workers.
"Unbelievable destruction," the Australian Red Cross called it, particularly in terms of human suffering. "Humanitarian needs will be enormous. Many people have lost their homes. Shelter, food and water (are) urgent priorities," the aid agency said in a tweet.
The main objective now is to get disaster response teams into Vanuatu and kick-start the humanitarian operation, said Gudnitz.
But the airport in Port Vila has been damaged and it's not clear when it will be able to reopen to allow relief flights to land. The U.N. aid agency hopes to get its first team on the ground with vital aid on Sunday, Gudnitz said.
Vanuatu's remote location won't help the international response. Port Vila is more than 1,100 miles northeast of Brisbane on Australia's east coast, and some 1,375 miles north of Auckland, the closest city in New Zealand.
Until international teams can get in, it will be up to humanitarian agency staffers on the ground and the local communities themselves to do what they can among the wreckage.
Many people are now spending a second night in emergency shelters.
Trees piled high
Alice Clements spent the night of the storm cowering under the bathroom sink.
"But all what I could think about during that time is the people who might be literally clinging to coconut trees for their lives, and trying to hold on in those horrific winds," the UNICEF spokeswoman said.
There's no power in the whole of Vanuatu, Clements said, making it impossible for people to recharge their cell phones to call in. The water supply is also cut off, adding to people's difficulties.
Another UNICEF staffer in Port Vila, Andrew Parker, told CNN that he'd been through many cyclones, but this one "just went on and on forever."
The winds and rain only started to subside about 1 or 2 p.m. on Saturday, he said, having raged since 5 p.m. on Friday.
Only one cellphone tower is still standing in the whole of the archipelago, in Port Vila, he said.
Vanuatu has officially declared a state of emergency due to devastation caused by Pam, Clements said. This step means neighboring countries can provide help.
The National Disaster Management Office in Vanuatu has confirmed six dead and 20 injured from the storm.
After Pam passed, World Vision emergency specialist Chloe Morrison took a drive around part of the island that is home to the capital.
"Port Vila looks like an absolute bomb has hit it," she said. Images showed trees toppled to the ground, along with corrugated metal roofing strewn around like silver wrappers.
Trees blocked the path of Morrison's vehicle. "They've fallen across in piles so high in some places you can barely see over the top," she said.
Strongest since Haiyan
Pam is the strongest storm to make landfall in the Pacific typhoon region since Haiyan raked over the Philippines in 2013, obliterating parts of Leyte.
Vanuatu's capital may have been luckier than Leyte.
Many roads are obstructed in Port Vila, and police had put the city on temporary lockdown, Gudnitz said. But there are some solid structures there to protect people.
The capital may be a fortunate exception.
The nation, which lies east of Australia, is an archipelago comprising 83 small islands, about 65 of them inhabited and many remote and lacking infrastructure. People away from the capital live much like their ancestors did generations ago.
Homes are built of weaker materials, including straw and corrugated steel, and may have had little stamina against Pam's raging winds.
Villages 'literally blown away'
Huts around Port Vila were destroyed, Morrison said.
"This is often a tropical paradise island and a lot of these houses are what you would expect on an island. They are thatched roofs and thatched walls, and just not able to withstand a Category 5.
"We've seen villages literally blown away."
Pam "left no island untouched," she added. "And the devastation that will be on those smaller, remote islands -- I can't even imagine it."
"Once we start looking further afield from Port Vila, we are going to see more destruction because the houses there would be in a much different condition from what we have in Port Vila," Gudnitz said.
"It's a disaster, there's no other way to describe it, really."
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency, the humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said it was still waiting to hear from all of its team in Vanuatu. Five have not been accounted for on Pentecost Island and five on Malakula Island, presumably unable to communicate because cellular networks are down, the organization said.
Field staff have reported that even families whose homes had survived two previous cyclones lost them during Pam.
"Families are trying to gather as much as they can," said Mark LeRoux, the organization's Vanuatu country director. "Even sturdy houses didn't make it -- walls and roofs came down."
Hunkered down, terrified
Even in a concrete house in Port Vila, emergency worker Morrison was terrified by the whirring force. She huddled in a back room with seven other people.
"Seven hours hunkered down and it's still not safe to go outside," she said early Saturday. "The winds are still really howling." It sounded like there was an angry ocean at their door.
Cyclone Pam's projected path
As a piece of tin twisted off the roof and landed by a window, Morrison felt lucky to be shielded by solid walls.
One positive amid the devastation is that Vanuatu has known that Pam was coming for more than a week, giving time for people to evacuate to shelters, though not every island even has a concrete structure, Morrison said.
The biggest priority now for many will be access to clean water, she said. In some outlying communities this was difficult even before Pam hit.
There is also the issue of food. Many people on Vanuatu's islands are subsistence farmers and the cyclone may have destroyed most or all of the crops they rely on to survive.
World Vision's staff hopes preparations will have paid off. They had positioned clean water, food, blankets, tarpaulins, and shelter, hygiene and kitchen kits in key places before the cyclone arrived.
Next cyclone brewing
Pam has now moved southeastward beyond the southern islands of Vanuatu and winds are expected slowly to ease, the Vanuatu Meteorological Department said Saturday evening.
In the meantime, very rough seas with heavy swells will continue to affect the waters surrounding Vanuatu, with heavy rainfall and flooding expected throughout the central and southern islands, it said.
The storm wasn't expected to make any additional landfalls before dissipating. It will continue to weaken as it crosses cooler waters and encounters higher wind shear.
But over Queensland, Australia, a new cyclone, Nathan, is brewing. It is expected to reach Vanuatu this week.
CNN
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