APCEDI Alert 13P, Cyclone Ivy #15, 2004

Dear Colleagues

Alert 15, Cyclone Ivy 13P / 26 February 2004, Sydney 1830 EDT

Vila is now under the eye of Ivy and the situation has calmed within the eye zone, but they are awaiting the other half of the storm. Luckily phone contact has been maintained with the NDMO all day and this evening. Ivy is still a Category 3 storm and intensifying slowly.

Category 3 Eyewall force winds will push into Erromango shortly with the eye likely passing either over the island or just off the west coast. It is still possible that it will intensify into a Category 4 storm around this time. Ivy continues as a strong storm with serious implications for the damage scenario across Central and Southern Vanuatu. Vanuatu NDMO have lost communications to many of the Northern and Central Islands. However recently phone contact was established with West Ambrym, and some radio contact is being maintained with Maewo and Ambae. Donors will need to plan now on how to cope with this very widespread event which will have impacted every island in the nation by the time it is finished and likely done serious damage to the capital.

Reports are being posted at www.afap.org/apcedi which is off of our main website at www.afap.org

A large area of deep convection remains at the centre of the storm. The central core of deep convection reaches from southern Malakula in the north to Anatom in the south extending to New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands. The inner core of deepest convection reaches from Southern Malakula and Ambrym in the north to Tanna in the South. This is the area of most concern. Ivy’s forward speed continues slow at 6 knots to the south.

Torrential rains continue over the southern Southern Malakula, Ambrym, Epi the Shepherds, Efate, Erromango, Tanna and Anatom. Intermittent heavy rains are over Northern Malakula, Maewo, Pentecost and Ambae. Due to the slow forward speed of Ivy, this torrential rainfall situation will continue today throughout Northern, Central and Southern Vanuatu. It continues to clear from the Banks Group and Santo and should start to clear from Maewo, Ambae and Pentecost shortly. Outer feeder bands with squalls continue to effect Tikopia, Vanikolo and the Banks and Torres Groups.

Most predictive models continue to forecast Ivy tracking southerly across the length of Vanuatu throughout the next 24 hours and then on to the east of New Caledonia. The official track out of the JTWC has Ivy moving over the Southern Islands tonight and then on to the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia tomorrow as a Category 4 west of Tanna for 12 hours and then declining thereafter. As such, the APCEDI warnings will continue all of Vanuatu from the Banks Group south. The APCEDI alerts for the Santa Cruz Group and the Torres Group will be lifted again although isolated short-lived squalls will still occur. If the eye feature maintains it current course, it will continue to pass over or just west or over Erromango in 2-4 hours and then to Tanna a few hours later.

The current situation is summarised as follows:

Damaging Category 3 Eyewall-strength Winds and Torrential Rains
Vanuatu
Epi
Shepherds
Efate
Erromango

Damaging Category 2 Winds and Torrential Rains (moving away)
Vanuatu
Southern Malakula
Paama
Ulveah
Ambrym

Sustained Gales and Heavy Rain approaching damaging Category 3 force in the next 3-6 hours
Vanuatu
Tanna
Anatom

Intermittent Gales and Heavy Rain associated with Feeder Bands (Storm now moving away)
Vanuatu
Maewo
Pentecost
Ambae
Santo
Banks Group
Northern and Central Malakula
Solomons
Tikopia
Vanikolo
New Caledonia
Loyalty Islands (Feeder Bands pushing in soon).

Given the Category 3 nature of the storm, damage overall at this time should be widespread moderate to severe from Epi on south. Damage to the capital Vila could be severe although at present mostly widespread moderate damage is being reported from NDMO. The danger from flash-flooding remains extremely high as the storm creeps so slowly toward the south. As Ivy continues this slow movement, very heavy widespread rainfall could result in flash-flooding of mountain and hill areas as well as known flood prone areas. This is especially critical for the large Vanuatu islands. Due to the islands’ very high relief and the slow movement of the storm, flash flooding will be a major threat throughout tonight and tomorrow especially if the the storm continues to pass slowly or even stalls. Locally severe to catastrophic damage will also likely occur in and around the eye of the storm. Varying degrees of crop damage are also likely. Seas will be very rough to phenomenal resulting in tidal flooding of low-lying areas.

Efate and the capital, Port Vila
The eye of the storm has moved over Efate. NDMO is reporting widespread moderate to localised severe damage in Vila as follows:
trees down blocking roads
power lines and poles down
large fishing boat capsized near the main wharf with a resulting oil spill
1700 people in evacuation shelters
power off in parts of Vila but on in other parts
phones mostly functioning
flooding of low-lying areas
some small bridges being washed out

However the other half of the storm still must go over the capital so more damage, Category 3 winds and torrential rains will continue for 3-6 hours before dying down into intermittent squalls. With the entire country including the capital impacted by this event, GOV and the people of Vanuatu will need serious assistance to coordinate the assessment and relief efforts.

Larger Northern and Central Vanuatu Islands
NDMO has established communications with some islands and have had the following reports which have not been confirmed:
Maewo- (radio contact)-many unstable and older houses damaged, newer more permanent houses largely withstanding storm.
Ambae-(radio contact)-many houses damaged.
Ambrym-(telephone contact with west)-school severely damaged, many houses damaged.

The centre of Ivy is now over Efate. Torrential rains and damaging Category 2-3 winds have been pounding Maewo, Pentecost, Ambae, Santo, Ambrym and Malakula for 2 days but will subside over night in most northern area. Epi, the Shepherds and Efate have been under the central core all day and will continue into tonight. The slow moving nature of the storm mean that rainfalls in the hundreds of millimetres will have been registered throughout the region and will be continuing. This will certainly be causing flash flooding of many stream valleys and larger rivers. The situation in hill and mountain areas of Santo, Malakula, Ambae, Pentecost and Ambrym is of particular concern. as will be the high country on Erromango and Tanna.

Larger Southern Vanuatu Islands
The southern eyewall is moving into Erromango and will likely hit Tanna and Anatom later tonight. Widespread moderate to severe damage can be expected. The slow moving nature of the storm mean that rainfalls in the hundreds of millimetres will have been registered throughout the region and will be continuing. This will certainly be causing flash flooding of many stream valleys and larger rivers. The situation in hill and mountain areas of Erromango and Tanna is of particular concern.

GOV, NDMO and Donors should now prepare themselves for needing to make widespread assessments across almost all of big islands Vanuatu in the following days. This may be difficult as Vila itself is now likely to be directly hit and experience serious damage. In addition to flash flooding, coastal flooding and wind damage can be expected at least in localised areas near the centre.

Banks Group
The centre of the storm is finally moving away from the Banks Group. However, heavy feeder band activity remains in the south. The whole group has had very heavy rains, very rough seas and increasingly severe winds for almost 48 hours. With the centre having slowly moved over Mere Lava, this outer island may be particularly hard hit. With the cyclone pulling away from this Group, assessments should be done of the areas to determine the degree of wind damage and flooding. Crops are likely badly affected in some areas.

Anuta and Tikopia, Solomons
Anuta and Tikopia are now out of the centre of the storm but still are in the outer feeder bands. Gales and heavy rains should start subsiding in the next 6 hours and become more intermittent and less severe after this. Light to moderate damage caused by tidal flooding of low-lying areas, crop damage and possibly some damage to unstable structures is expected given the nearly 48 hours of punishment by this storm. However, the overall damage will not be anywhere as bad as with Cyclone Zoe. However, the cumulative effects of 3 major cyclones in 14 months (Zoe, Gina and now Ivy) may well be wearing down the ability of the people and their environment and its resources to sustainably cope. NDMO and Donors should endeavour to make contact with the islands to assess both the immediate effects of Ivy and cumulative effects of the last 3 storms on the overall situation.

Torres Groups, Vanuatu and Santa Cruz Group, Solomons
outer feeder bands with heavy rains and squalls remain over Vanikolo. Seas remain very rough. The Torres Group, Vanikolo and to a lesser extent Utupua have received very heavy rainfall from their proximity to this slow moving storm so some flooding may have occurred. They should be assessed later today. The remainder of the Group has likely only experienced minor coastal flooding, but contact to all the all the smaller outliers should be undertaken to verify this.

Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia
Inner feeder bands are now moving in and conditions should begin to deteriorate in the next 4-8 hours.

General Alert
Concerns in New Caledonia including the Loyalty Islands should continue to monitor this storm as it develops over the next few days. Feeder bands will begin moving into the Loyalties in the next few hours.

APCEDI will continue monitoring the event. More detailed information about the storm can be found on


https://metoc.npmoc.navy.mil//jtwc.html
http://www.met.gov.fj/advisories.html
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html
http://www.afap.org
http://www.afap.org/apcedi

Thanks to Job Esau, John Henry and Philip of the Vanuatu NDMO for all the information.


Kevin Vang
APCEDI Coordinator