New Zealand and Australian holidaymakers and expats in Port Vila were yesterday asked to help with recovery efforts to get the hospital back up and running.
Auckland woman Rachel and her husband Metin said staff from the Australian High Commission visited the Holiday Inn where they were staying asking for volunteers.
"[The hospital has] got two different parts - one part's new and that part's still standing so all the emergency triage stuff is happening there. The entire rest of the hospital is pretty much under water," Rachel said.
The couple were among many people sheltering at the hotel who put their hands up to help.
"They need volunteers to just try and help clear it up and clean it up, because once they do get the roads open this is the only hospital on the island, so they're just going to get inundated and they need to try and have somewhere to put people."
Medical facilities across the island have been stretched since the storm.
One local family, who had a terrifying dash to the hospital with a mother and newborn baby after she developed heavy post-partum bleeding, were among dozens of patients left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of the storm, as large trees and other debris blocked roads and hospital access.
Ambulance crews were unable to get through the debris to help the new mother. Paramedic Charlotte Gillan, from the Vanuatu Emergency Medical Services Association, said the woman's father called the service to get help for his daughter after the birth early yesterday morning.
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"The baby was fine but the mother was hemorrhaging." she said. "They were from Efate and in the end had to transport themselves."
Ms Gillan said there was debris everywhere, making it extremely difficult to get around. One of the main bridges was blocked, reducing access to the eastern side of the island. "It's just all over the place here," she said.
The service, which still had some water and a generator for power, had received numerous calls for help, including some who had walked into the medical centre. Some of those were children experiencing asthma from the dust, and others people with traumatic injuries.
Teams had been sent out with a chainsaw to help clear the road, but the service was trying to keep its stretcher team on stand-by for emergencies, Ms Gillan said.
One doctor had opened his practice without power, so he could offer basic first aid, but not x-rays or ultrasounds, Ms Gillan said.
Anxious to check on home
New Zealanders David and Lynn Colbert are anxious to get home - a boat moored in Port Vila - to see how it has fared in the cyclone.
The couple are the founders and trustees for The Butterfly Trust - a Kiwi charity helping to improve access to healthcare and education in Vanuatu.
Mr Colbert said they were hoping to get a flight out from Auckland first thing this morning. "We've been living there for six years and our home is a boat in Port Vila. Friends tell us it's okay, but we'll have to see when we get there."
Mr Colbert said they worked closely with a number of schools and people on the outer islands; predominantly in Malekula, Ambae and Epi. They had spent the past day and a half trying to touch base with friends in those islands, but had not been able to get through.
Waiting to hear good news
Diana Sami, of West Auckland, is yet to hear from loved ones living on one of the outer islands, Malekula, and has been trying for the past day and a half to contact someone.
"My dad's siblings and my mum's cousins are all on the outer islands and those are the ones we haven't heard anything from or seen any photos of.
"The phone lines are down and we're just worried about everyone - it's the waiting game that's the worst."
Ms Sami, who travelled to Vanuatu last year, said the majority of homes on the outer islands were open traditional huts that would have been badly damaged if not destroyed.
Kiwi sailor missing
Anxiety is building over Vanuatu charter boat operator Simon Hamer, whose Tauranga-based family has not heard from him since Cyclone Pam hit. "Let's hope he's okay," wife Corrine Hamer said. yesterday.
Mrs Hamer last spoke to her husband on Thursday and was holding on to the hope that he survived by weathering the storm in a concrete house in a village near where their catamaran, South Sea Vagabond, was dragged ashore.
"I am feeling anxious, wondering what is going to happen next."
Her phone has rung non-stop from friends and family wondering if he has contacted her. Mrs Hamer said she was a bit surprised to have not heard any news yet. "If he was okay he would be trying to contact us."
She was amazed that Vanuatu's main newspaper had downplayed Cyclone Pam, publishing a front page story on Thursday that it was a tropical low that posed no threat. "Even on the radio, they were saying, 'If you pray, it will go away'."
Mrs Hamer said Simon responded to the news media by showing people the weather page on the internet in an effort to convince them that a huge cyclone was on its way.
Even debris blown away
Grants officer Chloe Morrison said it was an "absolutely devastating sight" in Port Vila.
"Whole villages have been blown away. The homes have been absolutely, completely flattened, they're just piles of timber, and sometimes not even that. They just are totally decimated. The wind was so strong they just blew away huge chunks of debris. We're seeing a lot of debris."
"Vanuatu is one of the most disaster prone areas in the world - typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis - and yet this still shocked them. But there was also relief for the people I spoke with. They've lost everything - their home and everything in it - but they're just relieved they're okay."
- Track Cyclone Pam in real-time here -
