World Vision Responds as Two Earthquakes & Tsunami Hit South Pacific

Two earthquakes and a tsunami have hit the western part of the Solomon Islands on Monday, killing at least 12, a spokesman for the islands has said. Christian development agency World Vision has pledged to respond.

|PIC1|Alfred Maesulia, the Solomon Islands' government spokesman, told CNN that "a lot of people" were missing, indicating that as many as 20 people could have been killed by the disaster. However, the exact extent of the damage and deaths probably will not be known for a few days, as the Solomon Islands attempt to assess the damage.

Sogavare said that it was fortunate that the tsunami hit during the daytime, as receding tides were identified, allowing an alert to be put out warning of the impending tsunami.

World Vision, one of the largest NGOs, in the Solomon Islands has said it will respond immediately by looking to address the needs for emergency shelter and food. Paul Martell, Interim National Director of World Vision, said many homes situated on hillsides have also suffered from landslides during the quake causing a number to slide off the hills, while villages around the coast have also been wiped out by the tsunami.

Assessments will be undertaken in relation to the restoration of water and sanitation as World Vision's major reconstruction input, as again the agency has one of the leading teams in the Solomons with this skill set.

Waves reaching 10 metres in height were seen hitting the Sasamunga village, destroying the entire village and a hospital and schools in the surrounding areas.

The US Geological Survey reportedly registered the first earthquake at magnitude 8.0.

"All the houses near the sea were flattened," as water "right up to your head" swept through the town, resident Judith Kennedy reported to the Associated Press.

She added that aftershocks were still being felt several hours after the earthquake: "The downtown area is a very big mess from the tsunami and the earthquake. A lot of houses have collapsed. The whole town is still shaking."

The first earthquake is thought to have struck at 6.40 am (2040 GMT on Sunday) and was centred 25 miles south-southeast of Gizo, New Georgia Islands, and 1,330 miles north-northeast of Brisbane, Australia.

A second quake of 6.7 magnitude hit a few minutes later. It was centred 75 miles west-southwest of Chirovanga, Choiseul, Solomon Islands, and 1,410 miles north of Brisbane, Australia.

The quakes immediately led to a tsunami warning across the entire Pacific, with Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea among the areas named in a warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

The early warnings did spark fears of a similar devastation to the magnitude 9 earthquake in 2004, which triggered a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. However, it appears that the scale of the devastation will not be anywhere near that disaster.

The Solomon Islands is a grouping of more than 200 islands northeast of Australia.