Three Govt Vessels Head For Lau

Three Government vessels carrying emergency supplies, officials and non-government organisations representatives were deployed to the Lau group on Thursday.

Government vessels MLC Veivueti, MV Bainitakali and MLC Vatulawa are on route to serve those affected by Tropical Cyclone Yasa.

The scope work for the deployment teams are assessment, quick fix and provision of emergency supplies of food items and non-food items like tents, kitchen kits, sanitation and wash.

Commissioner Central Josefa Navuku said the MV Bainitakali was headed to the central Lau group, which included Lakeba, Vanuavatu, Oneata and Nayau.

“The other one is for Upper Lau which will serve Vanuabalavu, the nearby islands, Cicia, Totoya and Moala. The third will be headed to the Southern Lau group of Moce and islands leading up to Vatoa.

Mr Navuku said the only two islands that would not be covered in this deployment for Cyclone Yasa were Matuku and Ono-i-Lau.

“This is based on the reports of damage that was provided from the island and community co-ordinators,” he said.

“For Lau, we have about 225 partial damage, 47 fully damaged homes based on the reports coming in from village headmen and district officers so the relevant agencies onboard are being deployed to verify and provide some temporary solutions as well as consider long terms solutions,” Mr Navuku said.

The deployed teams are to also assess the extent of damage and its status of the families living in the affected homes.

“The Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed that farms and their agriculture livelihood has been affected so that’s why food rations have been taken to these islands,” he said.

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