Tropical Cyclone Response in the Banks Islands, Northern Vanuatu

International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters November 1990. Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 401-424. DISASTERS AND DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT: TROPICAL CYCLONE RESPONSE IN THE BANKS ISLANDS, NORTHERN VANUATU John R. Campbell Ministry for the Environment Wellington, New Zealand The Banks Islands in northern Vanuatu are prone to tropical cyclones. While a thriuingpopulation appears to haue coped with these events prior to European contact, since then a smallerpopu- lation has struggled to maintain its food security following tropical cyclone events. A number of social, economic, political and resource management changes haue led to a set ofdisasterpre-conditions which result independence onexternal food relief following tropical cyclones. Most of these changes have taken place in the interuening years between disasters and haue occurred indepen- dent of the tropical cyclone hazard. However, one set of changes, the provision of food relief itself, has provided the catalyst for the other changes to occur. This paper is an historical study of responses to disaster in a small Pacific Island community. The purpose of thc study is two- fold. First, it seeks to explore the process by which small island communities have become increasingly vulnerable to disasters. Many Pacific Island countries have been affected by severe food shortages following tropical cyclones in rccent years and have become incrcasingly dependent upon injections of relief from foreign donors. This paper will investigate, from an historical perspective, some of the factors that have led to severe stress on food supplies of a small and relatively isolated island community as a result of tropical cyclone disasters. There are numerous recent examples ofthe disproportionately heavy impact of tropical cyclones on Pacific Island countries and the high levels of food dependency that result. In February 1990 Cyclone Ofacaused $US110 million in damage in Western Samoa and food rclicr was rcquircd by 80% of the national population of 401 402 International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 162,000 (Islands Business, March 1990, p. 16). In March 1986, Cyclone Namu brought about such devastation in the Solomon Islands that 90,000 people (one-third of the total population) were placed on rations for several months and losses totalled one-eighth of GDP (Britton 1987;Solomon Islands, National Disaster Council 1986). Vanuatu was struck by three tropical cyclones in the space of little more than twelve months between February 1987 and February 1988. Each storm caused considerable devastation, although in different parts of the country. The first of these events was Cyclone Uma which hit Efate, on which the national capital Vila is located, and islands to the south. The losses were great. Forty-nine people died and material losses were assessed at $US72 million, including widespread crop damage. Large donations from overseas governments and international agencies were required to maintain food supplies for six months after the event (AODRO 1987). The second storm, Cyclone Anne, affected the Torres and Banks Islands in the far north of Vanuatu in early January 1988. While there was no loss of life, housing was severely damaged and food relief was needed to offset heavy damage to subsistence and commercial plantations. While some relief was purchased locally, the relief programme depended on foreign donations of both money and rice (AODRO 1988). The third event in FebruaryIMarch 1988 was Cyclone Bola which affected some of the islands in the central region of the country necessitating further relief assistance. The second objective of the paper is to examine the applicability of two common components of disaster definition in the Pacific island context. As a concept “disaster" is used in a variety of ways although there are some aspectswhich are common to most usages. One of these common components of disaster definitions, although it is not always explicit, is that disasters are a departure from normality: ... if one seeks an understanding of what happens at the interface between extreme physical phenomena and social systems, it is necessary to look at the relationship between the context of normality and the process of disasters. (Pelanda 1981,p. 1, quoted in Britton 1987a, p. 36) An imnortant concent related to this is the "nrinci~leof conti- nuity" (~iarantelli197i) or the "carry over principle" kuarantelli and Dynes 1977). While disasters do represent change, including the need to deal with the consequences of rapid kpheaval of Campbell: Disasters and Development in Historical Context 403 environmental conditions, response to disaster is usually marked by a continuance of pre-disaster behaviour and "at most [disasters] tend to accelerate existing trends" (Quarantelli and Dynes 1977, p. 34). From this perspective there is a need to focus on disaster pre-conditions as a key to understandingwhat happens during and after a disaster (Britton 1989). The second common component of disaster definitions is that extreme levels of disruption occur (Fritz 1961). This disruption may have one of two sets of consequences: To repair damage and to replace losses after a disaster requires the diversion of part of the productive capacity of a community from "normal uses" so that these resources can be devoted to disaster response and reconstruction, or it requires that additional productive capacity be obtained from outside the system to help with responding to the disaster. (Bates and Peacock 1987, p. 294) The idea that a disaster occurs when extreme conditions exceed the ability of a community to cope with the disruption is implicit in the developing definition of the concept of extreme event (e.g., Heathcote 1985). It is also a strong component of disaster definitions used by "intervenors" such as disaster managers in central government positions including Pacific island countries (e.g., Car- ter 1984) and international donors (e.g., USAID 1982). Mota Lava ayd the Banks Islands The location of this study is the Banks Islands in northern Vanuatu. and in ~articular.the small island of Mota Lava. The study is based on notes from field research carried out in 1981 and on subsequent documentary research. Including the small islet of Ra, which lies approximately 200 metres south ofthe southeastern tip of the main island, Mota Lava has a land area of 31 square kilometres. The island, one of eight in the Banks group (see Figure I),lies some 450 kilometres fromvila. According to the most recent census (in 19891, the Banks Islands has a population of 5510 persons with a total of 1190 resident in Mota Lava, and represents only a small proportion of the national population of 142,630 (Vanuatu, National Planning and Statistics Office, 1989). Internattonal Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters Figure 1. The Banks Islands VANUA LAVA It wasnotuntil after Bishop Selwyn, oftheMelanesianMission, had passed through the Banks Islands in 1852 that regular inter- action between the islands and the outside world began. In the decades that followed missionaries made regular trips to the Banks Islands and encouraged island people to leave temporarily for religious training in New Zealand and Norfolk Island before re- turning as "teachers." The missionaries encouraged trade as well, first to obtain provisions for their voyages through Melanesia (Yonge 1875, pp. 171-172; Dudley 1860, p. 2; Ashwell 1860, p. 8). Campbell: Disasters and Development in Historical Context and second in order to encourageBanks Islanders to financechurch activities through the sale of copra (Fox 1958, p. 132). The establishment of permanent trading posts in the group took place from the 1870s onward (Codrington 1871, p. 66). Another extremely important influence on the islands came from"1abour traders" who, between the 1870sand the first few years of the twentieth century, took at least 6,000 people from the Banks group to work on plantations in Queensland and Fiji (Price 1976; Fiji, Immigration Department 1876-1911). With the cstablishmcnt of the Now Hebridcs Condominium in 1906, the Banks Islands became incorporated into a new adminis- trative sphere. However, because of their distance from tho capital and the largcly laissca fairc attitudes of thc two govcrningpowors, the establishment of colonial rule had little early impact on the Banks Islands. The labour trade celsed but numerous people from the Banks Islands took work on ~lantationswithin the Condomin- ium. Following the Second World War, svernment activities in the Banks Islands increased with provision of educationand health services. he ~e~ublicof~anuag~ained its independence in 1980. In the same year an airstrip was built on Mota Lava. Environmental Extremes The Banks Islands are prone to a wide range of environmental extremes including drought, tropical cyclones, earthquake and tsunami, and on Santa Maria and Vanua Lava the threat of volcanic eruption remains. Of these, the meteorological events cause more frequent disruption and the historic record, albeit patchy, provides information about tropical cyclones and response than it does about drought. While droughts have probably dis- rupted food supplies with similar frequency to tropical cyclones, the latter are by virtue of their rapid onset, spectacular nature and widespread physical damage more likely to be noted by foreign observers. This study focuses on responses to two tropical cyclones which occurred almost one hundred years apart, in 1873 and 1972. Three other severe tropical cyclones have also affected Mota Lava since the 1873 event: in 1910,'1939 and 1988. Additional severe events have seriously affected other Banks Islands while the group has 406 internauonal Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters been visited by numerous events of lesser impact over the same period. Tropical cyclones in the Pacific give rise to disasters for three major reasons. First, they pose a direct threat to human safety by causing stormy conditions at sea, river flooding on larger islands, landslides, and least importantly, flying debris on land. Second, the strong winds often destroy housing.

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