Pacific / Solomon Islands

Authorities prepare food relief in storm-affected Solomons

18:51 pm on 13 July 2015

The Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office is gearing up to provide food relief following heavy rain in the region.

Wind and rain from Tropical cyclone Raquel caused damage through most of the country's provinces earlier this month, affecting the welfare of about 10 thousand people.

Teams are currently visiting the affected areas to assess the extent of the damage.

The director of the National Disaster Management Office, Loti Yates, says most of the damage is to the food and agriculture sector.

We can see from the initial information that we have that major food relief is a must following confirmation of damages by the assessment teams. The first two or three weeks will be ok because people will be harvasting what they can from their gardens. It's after three weeks onwards that they start to feel the impact of root crops rotting away and that is when food shortage will be felt.

Loti Yates says plans are in place to provide emergency relief and the NDMO is just waiting on government funding.