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Tropical Cyclone Ian - Jan 2014

Disaster description

Tropical Cyclone Ian passed east of Tonga's Vava’u group (population 15,000) in the morning of 11 Jan 2014 before the eye passed directly over Ha'apai (population 6,600) in the afternoon. The Prime Minister declared a state of emergency for Vava’u and Ha’apai the same day. There was one confirmed death, 14 injuries, and extensive damage to houses, infrastructure and agriculture across the northeast islands of Ha’apai. Over 50 per cent of the 1,130 affected buildings in Ha’apai were destroyed, with 34 per cent suffering major damage. Around 2,335 people sought shelter in 51 formal and informal shelters. On 21 Jan, the Government accepted international assistance from the Pacific Humanitarian Team. (OCHA, 23 Jan 2014)

The Government of Tonga developed a Response Plan with its humanitarian and development partners with a three month time frame. Based on the needs identified, priority areas of the response are in shelter, water, food security, education and safety and protection. The plan aims to facilitate coordination of the humanitarian response and early recovery by documenting cluster response plans and identifying gaps/requirements for response. The immediate requirements over the next three months are TOP 28.4 million of which TOP 23.7 million remains unmet. The total requirements over the next 12-18 months including immediate, recovery and initial reconstruction needs identified are TOP 90.2 million of which TOP 83.4 million remains unmet.

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