Sole supvivor's nightmare

By Florence de Changy

Days after it had slammed into Manihiki and taken seven lives. Cyclone Martin moved on to the Leeward Islands in French Polynesia, about 500 kilometres northwest of Tahiti. On Bellinghausen or motu one, nine souls were swept away while on Mopelia 30 people had to be evacuat ed.

On Thursday November 5, Alice Haano was found alive but alone and haunted by what had happened. Two families lived on the atoll, traditionally uninhabited. There was the Taputu family, father, mother and their six children, aged between three to 20.

And there was Alice and her husband, Jean- Pierre Haano. Together it was a simple life of struggling to produce copra which they would sell when they could convince a ship from Papeete to come and pick it up. It was a low lying atoll, exposed to the weather and well beyond help.

“We were well and happy there. We never thought of the danger of living on this Island,” said Alice later at Faa’a Airport in Tahiti. On the night of Sunday, November 2, Cyclone Martin arrived and just as at Manihiki, it came with huge seas. Several waves crashed on the house the two fami lies had gathered into. It collapsed on them.

It went quiet for a little while then came a huge wave which wiped everything away.

They struggled to find some higher ground, calling each other’s names to stay together. Alice took with her two parcus or wrap-around skirts so that she could tie her self to a palm tree. This is what saved her.

She wanted to do the same for her husband but he had broken his leg and could not stand up. He was holding the Taputu’s baby in his arms. The rest of the family had already disappeared into the ocean.

Alice described how once she had to grab her husband by his hair to save him from being washed away. But another treacherous wave swept in again and the baby was finally taken away. She was tied to the tree while at her feet her husband lay in agony. She could do nothing but pray for him. When he finally died, she lay his body on coconut leaves and she covered him with niau leaves. She kept praying for help. The

next day, a French search plane flew over the atoll and dropped a radio.

With the news of what had happened, a rescue operation was launched.

The naval ship La Railleuse, with territo rial President Gaston Flosse abroad, headed towards Bellinghausen. They beached there and found Alice, the sole survivor. A relief team member described the scene: “There used to be 10 people here, a pig enclosure, a house, there was life. Now there is nothing.

The coconut trees have been uprooted. The concrete copra dryers have been washed away too.” Alice reckons two waves, each about three metres high, wiped the little community off the map. She said through out Cyclone Martin there was only a little rain and the winds were only moderately strong. But the sea, the enemy, was fierce.

After a full day of search on and around the motu, the soldiers gave up looking for other survivors or bodies. It is still uncertain whether the bodies stayed inside the lagoon but Alice believes they did not. She believes that the strong winds took them.

Laßaileuse brought back the body of her husband while Alice was flown with Flosse from Bora Bora to Papeete.

The day before, November 5, the navy ship Dumont D’Urville had evacuated the 20 men and 10 women who lived on Mopelia. They were taken to Maupiti, fur ther east where they would stay until the end of the cyclone season. Dumont D’Urville went on to bring food and rescue materials to Scilly, the third island in the same area.

When it was over, French President Jacques Chirac sent a condolence message in which he reminded the people of French Polynesia that “they could count on the full solidarity of metropolitan France”.

The local government has declared a special state of “natural calamity” which provides for an indepth assessment of the damages caused, upon which compensa tions could be paid to both private persons and councils. But questions are going to be asked. Could the people have been better equipped and better warned? Did the fore cast anticipate the disaster properly?

Could help have arrived earlier? But the ultimate question probably is, can a govern ment forbid its people from dangerous islands or should people’s freedom be

paramount? ■