State of disaster in Solomons

Solomons declares state of disaster after quake

The premier of Solomon Islands' Temotu province says more than 3000 people are without shelter, as they continue to suffer significant aftershocks.

Radio NZ,

8 February, 2013

Father Charles Brown Beu says people fled again to higher ground after a 6.7 tremor on Friday morning, the largest following Wednesday's 8.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed at least nine lives and badly damaged villages.

Red Cross relief workers with supplies are expected to arrive on the Santa Cruz group's main island on a government patrol boat from Honiara Friday night.

Father Beu says the 5000-strong population of the provincial capital Lata most urgently need waterproof shelters.

The Solomon Islands Red Cross secretary general general Joanne Zoleveke says there are widespread areas that no one has reached following the disaster.

"We're sending a 15-member team to Lata. We're relocating our operations centre there because we feel that the situation is grave and the devastation is more widely spread than we think it is."

She says only half of the main island in the Santa Cruz group has been covered so far and most of the outer islands remain isolated.

The Red Cross is also sending a water purification module and a sanitation unit on the boat.

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Santa Cruz island group just before 6am on Friday (local time). It was 10km deep and located south-east of Kirakira.

The tremor is one of the biggest of scores of aftershocks since Wednesday's 8.0 quake in the remote Temotu Province.

Rise in volcanic activity

The National Disaster Management Office in Solomon Islands says volcanic activity has increased on an island in Temotu province since the magnitude 8.0 earthquake two days ago.

Sipuru Rove says the uninhabited island of Tinakula, which is about 50km north of Lata, has been making loud and strange sounds.

He says help and information is needed from technical experts to assess the risk posed to the local community by the volcano as they are worried an eruption could be near.

"The volcanic activity on one of the islands that is off Lata is alarming at the moment. And this will really require scientific special people to assist us in assessing this volcanic activity which is beginning to be abnormal."

Sipuru Rove says there have also been significant aftershocks which meant a plane with supplies and medical staff couldn't land and was forced to return to Honiara.