Hi All,

It took a few days before the news caught up with the full extend of the damage from the most recent 7.2 quake in Port Vila, Vanuatu. This latest story outlines what the damages were and there was also another story which said they were looking to Austrailia for financial aid.

Earthquake Hits S. Pacific Island

By Associated Press

January 3, 2002, 4:21 AM EST

PORT VILA, Vanuatu -- A powerful earthquake set off landslides, damaged buildings and caused people to run from their homes Thursday in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

A small number of people were hospitalized with injuries from falling debris, but there were no immediate reports of deaths, officials said.

A witness said huge boulders rolled down hillsides and into the harbor of the capital, Port Vila.

The National Disaster Management Office said many roads on the main island of Efate were damaged in the 7.3-magnitude quake. Vanuatu is a nation of about 200,000 people located on a chain of 80 islands, 1,400 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia.

"People ran from their houses. It was sharp," said Job Esau, director of the disaster management office.

One of several landslides blocked an access road to the capital's docks, and two bridges on its northern and southern outskirts were extensively damaged.

Walls, floors and roofs of many buildings and homes were cracked in the town of 40,000.

"It was quite frightening. It lasted a good minute or minute and a half. The aftershocks were also quite violent," Port Vila resident Mark Neil-Jones told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"The port area has been totally cut off. There have been massive landslides. Rocks the size of buildings have come crashing down into the water," he said.

The temblor shook the archipelago at 4:22 a.m., and was centered below the ocean floor about 20 miles west of Port Vila, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

A magnitude 7 quake can cause widespread loss of life and significant damage to buildings in a major urban area, but few buildings in Port Vila, a sleepy harbor outpost dotted with coconut palms, are more two stories high.

Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, sits on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," which is dotted with active and dormant volcanoes and is earthquake prone.