Cyclone Pam: 'Our house is gone'

Families in Vanuatu have returned to their homes only to find the nightmare of Cyclone Pam isn't over.

"It's like I'm dreaming," said Edwin Manukiri, surveying the rubble that is all that his left of his home. "I don't even know what to do now. Our house is gone. Belongings gone. Trees even gone. I just didn't expect it."

Mr Manukiri, 35, lives on a property in Port Vila with seven other families. It is on a hill now strewn with broken trees, papers, toys, clothes, roofing iron, mattresses and mud. Amid it, are children a dog, and his family, who looked shell-shocked and tired.

Mr Manukiri lives in the home - now just a tiny concrete shed - with his wife and son, his brother-in-law, his wife and their son.

The family are sleeping in the shed although they know it's not ideal. "What else can we do?"

His neighbour Willy Harrison points out a hole in a concrete structure that was once a house and is now an empty shell littered with debris.

"See that hole? Eight of our boys were in there during the storm. It's terrible."

Mr Harrison said they returned home in shock after holing up at the church during the storm.

"My wife, when she saw our house, she just sat there and cried."

He too looks at the house with tears in his eyes. The roof of the home was torn off and it's structure badly damaged. It is wide open now, the walls gone, the meat in the freezer spoiling with the power still off.

Nearby, a child sits amid the ruins, playing with a toy car that survived the storm.

Mr Harrison says they would like to leave.

"But it is hard for us to go somewhere else. We will just have to stay here and survive. Rebuild."

The family are grateful for any help, they say.

Mr Harrison said the most important things were roofing iron, concrete and tools.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully was asked today whether he had heard from parents of two New Zealanders on Pentecost, asking for them to be evacuated.

Mr McCully said the last information he had earlier this morning was that no contact had yet been made with Pentecost and attempts were still underway to establish communications.

"We are taking an interest there because there are some New Zealand occupants there."

He said he had asked officials and the military if temporary communications could be set up.

He said yesterday all those who had asked to be evacuated from Vanuatu's main island were taken out. "Obviously today the Ministry is going through the same process to identify who needs to go. The last word I had was that Air NZ was flying today so that changes the equation a little bit."