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Situation Report No. 1 Wednesday 3rd March 2010 
 
 
1.

 

Situation 
 
Heavy rain and bad weather caused by two lows in the far southeast and 
southwest of Solomon Islands over the past two days has again caused bad 
flooding on northwest Guadalcanal, east Honiara, northeast Guadalcanal and 
other Provinces. The two lows have since moved away but heavy rain is still 
persisting due to a convergence over Solomon Islands and affecting the whole 
of the country. Heavy rains and isolated thunderstorms are still forecast. 
 

2.

 

Scope and scale 

Four bridges and two culverts in northwest Guadalcanal

 had their approaches washed 

away. 

 

The bridges are 

Tamboko, Toba, Doma 2 and Paru while the culverts are Tamboko and past 

Selwyn College high school. Their washing away has again restricted traffic movements 
between Honiara and those areas and people are instead using outboard motor canoes to travel 
to and from Honiara.  
Selwyn College school is relocating its junior form students to Honiara today. The Church of 
Melanesia which owns the school is sending its ship MV Southern Cross with some rations 
for senior formers who will remain at school and take the junior formers back to Honiara. 
Aruligo communities have reported the floods this year worse than last year saying their 
gardens have been flattened by inundation. Immediate priority needs are food, water and 
mobile medical teams as soon as possible. 
More reports are expected from other Provinces. This is the third month in which bad floods 
spurred by heavy rains due to low pressure systems since January have affected the country. 
Burns Creek Communities, Mberande in northeast Guadalcanal have also requested 
assessments and immediate support. 
 

3.

 

Response by different partners: 
 
A three-man team made up of NDMO, Ministry of Infrastructure and SIRC 
assessed the damages in a helicopter overview flight late yesterday afternoon. 
 

a.

 

Government :  

Deploying a multi-agency initial needs assessment team today to northwest 
Guadalcanal consisting of NDMO, health and agriculture from Guadalcanal 
Province, SIRC and Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. 

.  
 

 

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b.

 

Police: 

Dispatched a helicopter flight on Monday morning to northwest Guadalcanal and 
continues to monitor the situation, ready to support if and when requested.  

 

c.

 

NDOC:

 

Prepared to activate, still receiving reports from affected communities. 

 

d.

 

Health:  

Prepared to activate and awaiting further reports. 

e.

 

SIRC:   

•

 

Supported with one staff to be on the overview flight yesterday evening, will 
send a member in an assessment team being put together now. Standing by to 
support further. 

f.

 

NGOs:  

•

 

Awaiting any requests from NEOC. 

 

g.

 

Private Business: 

 
 

h.

 

International Assistance: 

 

 

 

i.

 

Assets deployed: 
 

o

 

Boats. 

 

j.

 

Proposed Plans: 

 

o

 

Conduct Initial damage and Needs assessments to determine priority 
needs of affected people. 

 

k.

 

Deployed teams: 

 
NDMO, Guadalcanal Province Disaster Officer; health and agriculture; 
Ministry of Infrastructure and Development; Solomon Islands Red Cross. 

 

l.

 

Update:  

Sr Doreen of Catholic church called by phone to report a worker at Aruligo 
Catholic plantation at Aruligo, Ezekiel called them up yesterday to say the 
floods this year were worse than last year. Floods have flowed through their 

 

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road damaging it and also inundating, damaging their food gardens. He also 
requested help for San Isidro Centre for the deaf and dumb as soon as 
possible. It was difficult for them to reach the Centre because of the big 
floods. 

 SIRC has five members waiting to join the assessments. 
 
Forecast today: 
 
General situation: a convergence zone is over the Solomon Islands. Heavy 
rains and isolated thunderstorms for all Provinces. 
 
 
The following are a recap of reports received on the 2

nd

 of March: 

 

(Flood advisory No. 4 issued by the Met Service spoke of rain at times and expected over 

most of the  

Provinces for the next 24 to 48 hours, warning communities about further flooding. 

1.

 

Reports made by phone from northwest Guadalcanal say heavy flooding experienced 
at Selwyn College and surrounding communities. PDO GP has been advised to 
organize assessments.  

2.

 

All PDOs now in Honiara for NDMO’s annual program review have been asked to 
contact their Provinces for updates. 

3.

 

Director NDMO requested SIRC, Ministry of Infrastructure and NDMO teams to 
standby for deployment to northwest Guadalcanal.  Held a meeting at 10:45 AM with 
those he’d requested. 

4.

 

A World Vision Officer in northwest Guadalcanal reported the recently fixed Poha to 
Taneba bridges again had their approaches washed away. (The Poha had its western 
approach washed away last month and the Tamboko one its eastern approach). 

5.

 

A male caller from Mberande area northeast Guadalcanal requested assessments in 
the areas. He was also requested to advise people to be careful as floods are still high 
and roads and or bridges may have been badly damaged. 

6.

 

Selwyn College reported major flooding at 12A.M. and students evacuated to dining 
hall. Their food rations ran out today but transport is the problem. There is money 
but how to get food is the problem. Classes will be delayed. A meeting was held at 
1pm today to further decide on whether or not school should continue or stop classes 
so problems caused by the floods have been fixed. There were no injuries reported. 
School is still observing the weather. The information was given to George 
Baragamu, Research and Development officer NDMO by the Principal, Noel Hou. 

7.

 

Chief Peter Usi reported floods still inundating Burns Creek areas and requested 
urgent assessments. Honiara PDO was informed but however advised the Honiara 
City Council clerk has told her not to work there as it is within the Guadalcanal 
Province’s jurisdiction. 

8.

 

Solomon Love and Chief Felix Cheta of Ghorabau village, Aruligo, reported by 
phone Surveys yesterday and today, found areas between Aruligo and New Mala 
covered by 4 ft high floods. Water was up to chest level in other words. All bridges 
have been damaged. Food and water and mobile medical teams to visit the 
communities are their priorities. The floods now are worse than February last year. 

 

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Estimated population in area is about 1000 (Ghorabau to Pisei and New Savo 
community along the coast) 
Safe areas for boats to land are Doma and Central Bank areas – others are very 
rough and dangerous. Mr Love also mentioned seeing some Selwyn students and staff 
going past Aruligo this morning. 

9.

 

An assessment team will be deployed this afternoon as soon as all necessary matters 
have been sorted out. 

10.

 

An Initial Situation Overview, ISO, was conducted by a three man team (NDMO, 
SIRC, MID) by helicopter this afternoon results of which are expected tomorrow). 

 
 

The next update is expected tomorrow