RAAF plane to fly over cyclone-hit islands

A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) plane will fly over two remote Polynesian isles in a bid to determine the fate of around 3,000 people who have been cut off since being hit by one of the Pacific's worst ever cyclones.

The Australian Government will provide the plane, which will fly over the islands early this morning.

The Government is also providing the fuel for a Solomon Islands patrol boat that will sail for the islands with relief supplies.

Cyclone Zoe, which topped the Southern Hemisphere classification for storm strength, hit the remote Temotu Province of the Solomons late Saturday night, particularly the volcanic island of Tikopia. Another populated island, Anuta, was also hit.

Tikopia has been badly affected by storms in the past.

In 1992, Cyclone Tia wiped out most of the housing and food crops, while in 1956 a storm killed 200 people.

Solomons Catholic Archbishop Adrian Smith says he is worried and wants help sent quickly, but added he also knew from the island that the people knew what to do.

"Their whole lifestyle is of a people who live with their environment and very close to nature and they know what to do," he said.

The issue of sending help to the islands, 1,000-kilometres west of Honiara, has been clouded by the fact that a four-year long civil war has left the central government bankrupt.

Efforts to get the patrol boat Lata to Tikopia earlier were frustrated by a lack of money for fuel, ultimately answered when the Australian High Commission provided 200,000 Solomons (around $50,000).

Then the National Disaster Management Office found it could not buy relief supplies to put onto the ship and the money for that only came through late Tuesday.

Office director Loti Yates concedes Tikopia has probably been "flattened" but says he does not know what has happened to the people.

He fears there has been a loss of life, but does not want to give numbers.

Lata, once it sails, will take three days to get to Tikopia.

Archbishop Smith says he is shocked at the way the island had gone silent and believes it reveals a flaw in emergency management.

He noted the Church of Melanesia radio-net, which has continued to function through the civil war, had also failed on Tikopia.

But he says it is sensible to wait a few days before trying to reach Tikopia because the seas in the area would be huge and the islands had no anchorage or airport.

Even if a boat reaches Tikopia it may need a helicopter (which Lata does not have) to get people ashore.

Archbishop Smith says the island's people should be praised for the way they cope with severe isolation, keeping stocks of food buried for situations such as that which has just occurred.

"We must give them credit for what they do for themselves.... Here are a people who have lived with the normal situation of being whacked by cyclones every two or three years," he said.