By Barbara Ratusznik, Public Diplomacy and Disaster Response Officer, Pacific Division, AusAID
The Pacific region is prone to a wide range of natural disasters. We saw this last week when a magnitude 8 earthquake and tsunami struck the remote Temotu Province in Solomon Islands. Cyclone Evan devastated communities across Fiji and Samoa in December, and Cyclone Bopha caused widespread destruction in Palau several weeks earlier. These disasters have claimed lives, destroyed homes and crops, and left millions of dollars’ worth of damage in their wake.
On top of the threat of cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, the Pacific is also susceptible to volcanoes, flooding and droughts. The United Nations ranks Vanuatu as the most at-risk country in the world to natural disasters. A further four Pacific nations appear in the list’s top 15 (Tonga, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji).
