Forward Response Plans for Cyclone Judy and Kevin set to go

The National Disaster Council (NDC) in its efforts to support the Temotu Provincial Response to the twin weather systems, the Planning Function Team within the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) has developed a  Response Plan of action.

The document captures plan of actions to be taken for the deployment of resources in responding to the anticipated impacts. Based on reports from the Tikopia, Reef Islands, Anuta and Vanikoro, significant damages to fruit trees and other sources of livelihood calls the need to do proper assessment and verification of the situation on the affected areas. These information have been captured in the Plan.

The Planning document also captures the process and type of assessment that is needed to be carried out. In the plan there will be two phases to the assessment. The first assessment is the “Initial Situation Overview”(ISO) which will be carried out through the analysis of reports coming in from communities, Using of Secondary data, such as population, critical infrastructure and socio-economic activities that are expected to be affected by the Tropical cyclone, and the activation of international charter space and major disaster. The international charter space and Major Disaster platform provides remote sensing capabilities to build the anticipated picture of the impact which is critically important for the ISO. In the ISO process the NEOC through the National Disaster Operations Committee (N-DOC) has today sought the assistance of DFAT (Australia) via the Forum Fisheries Agency to conduct an aircraft  flyover across Temotu province with a focus on Tikopia, Anuta, Reef Islands and Vanikoro . The fly-over will provide an overview of the impacts of the recent cyclones.

 

The second Assessment as indicated in the response plan is the “Initial Damage Assessment” (IDA). This assessment will be led by the Provincial Emergency operation center in Lata with support from the NEOC. This assessment is to gather information about the impacts such as damage to shelter, inundation and damage to water sources and food crops, and disruption to social services and facilities. This assessment will be used to indicate immediate needs of the affected population. Based on findings of the level of damages and the coping capacity of community, a decision will be taken on whether or  not to implement targeted responses to assist affected population.

In the meantime, the NEOC would like to inform the public that detailed assessment will not be conducted on these Islands until weather permits and resources are availed.

Furthermore, NEOC requests the people of the 4 remote Temotu province outliers to be patient with the government process of accessing support to conduct the identified assessments. Whilst the situation needs immediate attention, NEOC will strictly follow the Government Financial Instruction to secure appropriate support and resources.

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NEOC press