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Speaker 1: Seven after six News talk ZB. In just a few moments,

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Speaker 1: we are looking at S and P global ratings. What

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Speaker 1: are they saying about the government's books we revealed yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Right now, key We search and rescue teams are preparing

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Speaker 1: to fly to Vanuatu in the next few hours. Early

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Speaker 1: reports estimate hundreds have been injured. More than a dozen

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Speaker 1: people have died. This after yesterday's seven point three earthquake.

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Speaker 1: There is little to no electricity, running water or fuel.

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Speaker 1: Journalist Dan McGarry is with us from Vanuatu. Dan, thanks

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Speaker 1: for being on the program. First of all, where exactly

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Speaker 1: are you and what's going on where you are right now?

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Speaker 2: I'm in Portfelo, the capital, which was about thirty four

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Speaker 2: to thirty five kilometers away from the epicenter of the earthquake.

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Speaker 2: It is because it's the most built up area on

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Speaker 2: this island. It's the area that has experienced the most damage.

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Speaker 2: We've seen buildings destroyed, you know, I'm sure you've seen

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Speaker 2: the images and widespread damage to a great many buildings,

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Speaker 2: especially in the city center. We have seen massive landslides.

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Speaker 2: They're visible from over a kilometer away down in the

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Speaker 2: area right beside our national shipping or international shipping terminal

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Speaker 2: that's been closed. The entire facility is out of bounds now,

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Speaker 2: as is the downtown area in Port Vila. Power is off,

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Speaker 2: water is being restored very slowly to local neighborhoods. We

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Speaker 2: lost two large capacity water tanks on the hills just

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Speaker 2: outside of town, and so water supply is going to

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Speaker 2: be a continuing concern. We've also seen the National Disaster

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Speaker 2: Management Office is reporting fourteen dead, two hundred injured, and

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Speaker 2: they expect that the casualty figure will increase in the

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Speaker 2: next day or so.

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Speaker 1: Have they still full of finding people alive?

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Speaker 2: I've heard that. You know, rescue operations are ongoing. Somebody

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Speaker 2: told me that they had pulled somebody out. I haven't

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Speaker 2: been able to confirm it, so I won't speculate. However,

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Speaker 2: we do know that there were four bodies recovered wreckage

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Speaker 2: in the last twenty four hours or so.

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Speaker 1: So the port is basically out of action because of

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Speaker 1: the landslide. What about the airfield? What about the airport?

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Speaker 2: There were cracks reported on the edge of the tarmac,

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Speaker 2: so I think prior to any plane landing, they're going

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Speaker 2: to need to get engineers to take a close look

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Speaker 2: at the extent of the damage. So it's just too

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Speaker 2: soon to say what's going on. But there are no

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Speaker 2: flights incoming or outgoing at this time. There were overflights

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Speaker 2: by Royal Australian Air Force and New Zealand Air Force

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Speaker 2: planes to do aerial surveys, but I don't think that

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Speaker 2: any of them have landed.

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Speaker 1: Is that a problem that we can't you can't get

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Speaker 1: frightened or can't get any ear freighton at the moment?

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Speaker 1: Are people in need of water or food or supplies.

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Speaker 2: We've got enough because we're you know, we import almost

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Speaker 2: everything by ship. You know, we're used to having a

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Speaker 2: fairly large standing stock of essentials. But with these two

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Speaker 2: facilities constrained and possibly offline, that's a really significant concern

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Speaker 2: in terms of resupply. And so you can imagine, you know,

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Speaker 2: there are a lot of people who are waiting anxiously

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Speaker 2: to see just what the extent of the damage was,

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Speaker 2: especially down in the container port.

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Speaker 1: All right, take here Dan, that's Dan McGarry who's a

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Speaker 1: journalist based in Portville, Nawatu. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Alan Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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