A safe return to Australia has become the singular focus for Albury couple Dylan and Vivienne Jones after surviving the fury of Cyclone Harold as they remain holed up in Vanuatu due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The worst of the cyclone, including winds of around 200km/h, passed through in the early hours of Tuesday.
"It was howling and we had a lot of water which came into our bungalow overnight," Ms Jones said.
"There is a fair cleanup going on on other islands, but Port Vila seemed to just go back to normal.
"All the shutters came off and the sun came out today."
MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
Their attention has turned back to securing a flight back to Australia.
"There are whispers about a flight to Brisbane this week but we don't know," she said.
"The Australian High Commission isn't great at getting you information."
Cyclone Harold is now tracking towards neighbouring Fiji after destroying some homes and food crops and bringing down communication lines.
Even though there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Vanuatu there were still domestic travel bans in place under a state of emergency.
But emergency management chiefs are looking at lifting those to assist the cyclone clean-up including bringing in relief goods.
Assistance from other countries including Australia have been ruled out to date.
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here
