Telegraph.co.uk | Hundreds evacuated as Pacific volcano erupts on Vanuatu

More than 300 villagers were evacuated in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu after an erupting volcano started spewing smoke and ash on to their homes.

Published: 12:39PM GMT 26 Nov 2009

Residents were loaded onto fishing boats and shipped to the far side of Gaua island after the volcano, which has been rumbling for the past two months, started erupting.

"They're evacuating people to the other side of the island. The volcano was throwing ash in the place they live," said a Red Cross spokesman. He said police and Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office were overseeing the operation.

The Red Cross is providing water containers and purification tablets for the villagers, who have been hit by respiratory problems and diarrhoea caused by the volcano's pungent sulphur fumes.

The evacuees will have to stay away from their villages until the volcano subsides, the official said.

The area has been put on the second highest alert level, reports said. Gaua, about 9,800 feet high, has erupted 13 times since 1963, tourism officials say. Vanuatu is on the "Pacific Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/vanuatu/6661032/Hundreds-evacuated-as-Pacific-volcano-erupts-on-Vanuatu.html

Radio New Zealand | 300 evacuated from villages in Vanuatu due to gas and ash from volcano

Posted at 01:27 on 26 November, 2009 UTC

More than 300 people are to be evacuated from today from three villages in the north of Vanuatu because of gas and ash fall from a volcano.

The government has sent the country’s paramilitary and mobile forces, and the Vanuatu Red Cross Society to monitor the evacuation from the west of the island of Gaua in Torba province.

The director of the National Disaster Management Office, Job Esau says people have been suffering from respiratory problems and diarrhoea in the last few days as a strong wind has carried the gas and ash.

Reports from Gaua says two boats from the police and health department in Torba are starting to evacuate people this morning. They are starting with children, women, the elderly and disabled.

Mr Esau says they will negotiate with ships owners to help with the evacuation because the two motor boats can not carry enough people.

Chiefs from two villages, Namasari and Lembot, from the east of Gaua met yesterday about housing the relocated people. At the moment, the National Disaster Management Office has maintained the level of alert on 2 but Esau says during the past days, ash fall and the gas has increased.

Source:
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=50551