<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>335644</docID> <postdate>2024-12-19 07:08:15</postdate> <headline>Mother who worked in Aust among quake victims</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-335646" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/vanuatu-aid-e1734552303655.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" /></p> <caption>Australia has sent relief, support and rescue teams to Vanuatu in the wake of a deadly earthquake. Photo: RAAF</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Ben McKay</strong> and <strong>Callum Godde</strong></span></p> <p><strong>A young mother fresh off a nine-month Queensland work stint is among the dead in Vanuatu's worst earthquake this century.</strong></p> <p>Australian rescue and medical teams have arrived in Port Vila as the Pacific nation races to respond to Tuesday's 7.3-magnitude earthquake.</p> <p>The death toll stood at 14 late on Wednesday with at least 200 injured, according to the Red Cross.</p> <p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the crews would be on the ground from Wednesday evening and the people of Vanuatu had a long road to recovery ahead.</p> <p>"Australia stands ready to provide further assistance to our Pacific family in their time of need," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.</p> <p>No Australians have been confirmed dead in the quake, but one case in particular shows the ties between the two Pacific neighbours.</p> <p>Rodney Prestia, chief executive of labour hire business iComply, told AAP that a 26-year-old woman who he identified only as Valerie was crushed in a collapsed building.</p> <p>"It's an absolute tragedy and our team's been really rattled by it," he said.</p> <p>Tim Cutler, the Sydney-raised boss of Vanuatu Cricket, was having lunch in the downtown Coffee Tree cafe when the mighty tremor shook the buildings around him.</p> <p>"The first shake was not an alien feeling to anyone that has spent much time in Vanuatu. You get frequent tremors," he told AAP.</p> <p>"But it just got stronger and stronger so I went from a moment of 'oh' to 'oh no'.</p> <p>"Things were just flying around and I was lucky not to be hit by anything. A couple of people I was with had a few bruises, some people were screaming, some were quiet, a few people were running around.</p> <p>"A water tank fell over and rolled onto a lady hiding under a table ... it was just surreal slow-motion (that felt) somewhere between a dream or a movie or at a theme park."</p> <p>With the airport reopening on Wednesday afternoon, relief and support from Australia was able to touch down including a C17 Globemaster and C130 Hercules with personnel from Queensland and NSW fire and rescue.</p> <p>Australian Federal Police, a foreign affairs department crisis response team and a medical assistance team were also deployed.</p> <p>Taskforce leader, chief superintendent Douglas May, said their first priority was to help people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.</p> <p>"Ultimately we know there are lives to be saved there right now," he said.</p> <p>"After that, we'll be able to help locate the deceased and then helping with any other disaster assistance that the country might request."</p> <p>UNICEF child protection officer Rebecca Olul said she had left the charity's Vanuatu office for lunch and exited a cafe when the quake struck, throwing her to the ground.</p> <p>"I was just alongside a three-storey building so when I went down the immediate thing I did was look up and hope it wasn't going to come down on me," she told AAP.</p> <p>UNICEF's Port Vila field office in a six-storey building was damaged, but all 19 staff escaped injury and are now working from makeshift options.</p> <p>Ms Olul said she had driven around town and people were still sitting in parks and under trees, scared of aftershocks causing further collapses.</p> <p>International assistance was needed to restore key infrastructure and it was unclear how long the recovery could take, she added.</p> <p>Mr Prestia, who pivoted his business to Pacific workers when backpackers stopped arriving owing the COVID-19 pandemic, said he had worked with more than 1000 "fantastic" workers from Vanuatu.</p> <p>He said any Australians wanting to help Vanuatu should visit the Melanesian paradise when conditions allow.</p> <p>"It's two and a half hours away. It's pristine," he said.</p> </body>