World Vision’s Vanuatu country director says electricity and water are still affected in the capital Port Vila and strategic bridges connecting the city are damaged, nearly 24 hours after a 7.3 earthquake just before 1pm on Tuesday afternoon.

The city has had multiple aftershocks since, with the strongest this morning reaching a magnitude 5.5.

At least 14 people are confirmed to have been killed and more than 200 people are injured.

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World Vision’s Clement Chipokolo said the aftershocks are making everyone more vulnerable.

“We’re still out of electricity; we’re out of water as well and most of the stores are closed,” Chipokolo said.

“We have queues that are forming in the stores that are open for people to get essentials, especially water.”

He said the main priority is to recover those buried under rubble and recover bodies, while service providers were frantically trying to restore water and power.

He said the public was starting to come to grips with what had happened.

“I think we did not really gauge the scale of the impact yesterday, but now the public are sucking it in — how much we went through yesterday and by extension today.”

Vanuatu is one of the most natural disaster-prone countries in the world. It was hit by three severe tropical cyclones last year.

“We are a country that’s quite resilient to disasters but this was not a disaster that we anticipated or probably prepared for,” Chipokolo said.

However, he said the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO). which is the government arm that manages disasters, were on standby to support because of the cyclone season.

RNZ News also reports that help is slowly arriving, with incoming support from New Zealand, Australia and France. The airport in Port Vila is not operational other than for humanitarian assistance.

There are concerns about a lack of safe drinking water and Unicef Vanuatu Field Office Eric Durpaire told RNZ Midday Report there had been an increase in cases of diarrhoea.

Two Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff previously unaccounted for have been found safe.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

My friend Jamie just shared this video of the moment the earthquake struck his home. Amazing. pic.twitter.com/FaR24r2DeJ

— Dan McGarry (@VanuatuDan) December 18, 2024