By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Inhabitants of a tiny Pacific island appear to have miraculously survived the wrath of one of the region's most violent storms - which packed 350km/h winds - without serious injury.
Medical and aid officials who arrived by sea yesterday on Tikopia in the remote eastern Solomon Islands confirmed the news from a New Zealand cameraman who landed by helicopter 41 hours before them.
Auckland-based Geoff Mackley reported after his daring helicopter expedition from Vanuatu on Friday that "every single person" among Tikopia's 1300-strong population was alive and appeared to have turned out to welcome him and Australian pilot Phil Cotter.
Mr Mackley relayed to the world the first pictures of smashed villages and shredded trees on the island from a single-engined Cessna flight on Wednesday, but was unable to land then, and yesterday set out by helicopter on yet another trip there.
He said on his website that he had distributed his own food aid on Friday, bought from a shop in Vanuatu, while neighbouring countries "dithered for five days" in their relief efforts.
"The whole way there I thought we would see hundreds of dead and festering bodies, but instead we were just overwhelmed with people running towards the plane," he told the Weekend Australian.
They told him they survived Cyclone Zoe by fleeing to mountain hideouts used by their ancestors for centuries, but their homes and crops were destroyed and they would not be able to grow all the food they needed for at least three years.
He also heard that their last water supply was contaminated by salt water.
"They are collecting water from green coconuts, but obviously that's not very good for them."
Mr Mackley said islanders told of their dismay that an Australian military aircraft which flew over the island on a reconnaissance mission after his Cessna trip did not drop supplies.
But AusAid assistant director Alan March said last night that a full relief effort was well under way following the arrival yesterday morning of a Solomon Islands police vessel with one of his staff and a medical team on board.
A New Zealand-chartered second vessel, the Isabella, was due to arrive last night with 12 tonnes of rice and reconstruction experts, and a third ship was being made ready to leave the Solomons capital of Honiara after aid assessments were received.
A Swiss doctor heading the medical team, Dr Herman Oberlie, reported that there were about two weeks' food supplies of crops such as kasava left on the island, and the rice would last for a further two to three weeks after that.
Mr March confirmed that he had been unaware Tikopia was within helicopter range of Vanuatu.
The patrol vessel, which was delayed from making the voyage while its crew demanded unpaid wages, was expected to leave Tikopia last night to arrive after dawn today at the neighbouring island of Anuta, home to about 600 people.
That island is not expected to have been hit as hard by Cyclone Zoe, although the possibility of casualties cannot be ruled out.
Dr Oberlie reported that a clinic remained intact on Tikopia and some fresh water was still available from a spring, despite damage to pipes.
Waikato University anthropologist Dr Judith Macdonald said she was enormously relieved that no one was killed, and only minor injuries were reported, but called on the Solomons' Pacific neighbours to guard against a repeat of starvation and disease following an earlier cyclone.
She said about 200 people died of starvation after a cyclone in the 1950s.
Dr Macdonald said she had made contact in Honiara with an adopted grandson whom she had feared was still on Tikopia when the cyclone hit.
Spokesman for the Solomons' National Disaster Management Office, Brian Beti, said there could be no comparison between the latest disaster and one half a century ago, when "things might not have been properly co-ordinated".
He said Dr Oberlie had reported that the people of Tikopia "still look healthy and happy".
Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said yesterday that Mr Mackley's efforts had shown up "dilly-dallying" over aid to the Solomons which demonstrated an urgent need for better co-ordination among Pacific countries.
Inland hideouts key to survival on Tikopia
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