hi Michael (and others),The fact that the communities in both countries were relatively well prepared; meant that the death rates (< 20 in Vanuatu; < 50 in Fiji) were relatively slight, although the numbers (and percentages) of people in both countries was high - eg 166,000 affected in Vanuatu, and around 350,000 in Fiji. The emergency response, and subsequent recovery operations, were well supported by mixture of local communities, national resources, supported by the international community. The situation in these two countries contrasts with Haiti, hit by Hurricane Matthew in early October. The number of deaths is proportionally higher (over 1,000 as at end Oct), and the number of people affected around 2.1 million. I'm not sure whether a proportion of these deaths were caused by storm surges around the coast. The situation is probably more challenging due to greater poverty, and cries of corruption/nepotism/inefficiency (leading to some growing security problems) relating to the forthcoming elections due on the 20 Nov 2016. .
