Not the kind of #MothersDay the children of #Vanatu will be celebrating

Vanatu disaster - intense low over Pacific islands sees wind speeds over 200+kph

Looks like the 60+ island communities known as #Vanatu could do with some serious international humanitarian aid after winds over 200 kph at the leading edge of the typhoon tear across the region...

the devastation is almost total in many places...

with almost no communication possible with the majority of communities outside of the capital the true extent will not be known for some time - in the meantime the population have to contend with having lost or seriously damaged accommodation and infrastructure.

Rachel Kyte, World Bank President told AFP:

"I don’t think I would say climate change caused [Cyclone] Pam, but I would say the fact is in the past three or four years we’ve seen category fives coming with a regularity we’ve never seen before.

And that has some relationship with climate change. It is indisputable that part of the Pacific Ocean is much warmer today than in previous years, so these storms are intensifying.

We may have helped communities become resilient to the kinds of storms we experienced in the past, but resilience to a storm with wind speed of up to 300km per hour – that’s a whole new intensity."

You can help UNICEF can help the mothers of children in Vanatu here