Vanuatu Oxfam country director Collett van Rooyen wrote about the experience for the charity, describing the moment the cyclone hit.
"We knew (almost) exactly where she was and what her most likely next move would be and we knew that she would only reveal to us her secrets as she arrived over us," she wrote.
"...Regular radio announcements in calm tones; traditional Vanuatu string-band music in between statements of how harsh things may be when she gets to us.
"All a bit surreal really. The cyclone shutters boarding up our windows and doors start to shudder, at first gently and irregularly and then faster and constant. Pam is now moving in, getting closer to us at a rate of 10, 15, 20 kilometers per hour.
" Her eye moves at an astounding speed, creating wind forces of unimaginable speeds. "Can you imagine 'over 200km an hour'? I couldn't at the time. But I could hear it. I now know the sound of 200km per hour or more, and I don't think I would willingly subject myself to it again. Pam arrived announced by the drum roll of our shutters. Then she roared, she squealed, she hissed. She spat and cursed in deep bass tones, and at the same time she whistled and screeched in ways that messed with our senses. What was that we just heard?
"Someone outside screaming? The high-pitched string band notes we had heard earlier on the radio? No, the radio was off and people had taken shelter. It was Pam in her many voices. She spoke a language of essential fear at its most primitive and we understood it instantly."
VIDEO: Aftermath of cyclone Pam at Port-Vila, Vanuatu
No comments:
Post a Comment