Ishmael’s home and property swept away by tsunami

Ishmael was at work when he felt the ground begin to shake. As the vibrations grew bigger and bigger, he knew this earthquake was different from the rest.

His thoughts went immediately to his family and he began to run back to his village. As he passed members of this community, he shouted at them to run to the hills in case there was a tsunami. But they ignored him and went about their routine assuming it was just one of many earthquakes they felt regularly.

When Ishmael reached his family he heard the threatening roar of waves surging towards his village. He quickly gathered up his wife and children and fled to the hills.

“There was no time to look for people or inform them that the big waves were coming, I only managed to get my family to run to the hills,” Ishmael said. 

After half an hour they returned to their village to discover the waves had swept away everything in their path, taking homes and livelihoods with them.  Nothing was left standing, leaving Ishmael and his family with only the clothes on their backs.

Ishmael cried when he saw that his house and all his property had been destroyed. “I felt helpless and hopeless seeing everything that I have worked hard to set up is now all gone in just a few seconds,” he said.

“Me and my family are now homeless, we have nothing left and we don’t know how long it will take for us to rebuild back our lives to be able to live a normal life again.”

World Vision has staff on the ground responding to the 8.0 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Ishmael’s and 22 other villages in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands on Wednesday 6 February 2012.

Approximately 4000 people have been impacted by the disaster and World Vision is currently working with the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) to distribute essential items such as food and water to the affected communities. World Vision has also sent boats to more remote communities to deliver shelter kits, kitchen utensils and hygiene and sanitation kits.

World Vision’s Solomon Islands Country Director Andrew Catford said the response had been challenging.

“Temotu Province is made up of a number of small islands in the far east of the Solomons. Logistics in Temotu are currently a significant challenge, as the communities are quite isolated and there are not many vehicles and boats to deliver supplies to the affected communities”, he said.

World Vision is sending two vehicles, two boats and fuel on the MV Arnavon to help solve the logistical issues of distributing relief supplies in Temotu.

 “We’re now starting to get essential items to communities and we have a big shipment of relief supplies on its way, which will help communities to start rebuilding their lives,” Dr Catford said.