Packing winds of 270 kilometres per hour, Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.
Chloe Morrison, a World Vision emergency communications officer in Port Vila, said officials from Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office confirmed to her agency that at least eight people in and around the capital, Port Vila, had died during the cyclone.
A westward change of course put populated areas directly in the path of Pam. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there were unconfirmed reports of an additional 44 deaths in Vanuatu's northeastern islands after Pam moved off its expected track.
Morrison said residents were awakening to much calmer weather today after many hunkered down in emergency shelters for a second straight night yesterday. She said power remains out and communications patchy.
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Morrison said communications have been so problematic that her aid group hasn't yet been able to account for many of its own 76 staff members on the islands.
For anybody who wasn't in a secure shelter during the cyclone "it would have been a very, very tough time for them," she said.
Vanuatu has a population of 267,000 spread over 65 islands. About 47,000 people live in the capital. Teetering trees and downed power lines have made parts of Port Vila hazardous.
"We hope the loss of life will be minimal," Ban said during the World Conference on Disaster Risk and Reduction in Japan. The UN said it was preparing to deploy emergency rapid response units.
The president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, who was attending the conference, told participants, "I do not really know what impact the cyclone has had on Vanuatu."