Dozens still missing in Solomon islands floods

Dozens of people are still missing after flash floods thathave killed at least 12 people and left some 10,000 homeless in the Solomon Islands.Local media said about 30 people remained unaccounted for following Thursday’sflooding.Much of the capital Honiara was inundated as thousands of people took refuge inemergency shelters.A state of emergency has been declared amid concerns over food and water suppliesand damaged infrastructure.Solomons Red Cross Secretary General Joanne Zoleveke described the floods as “atragedy none of us saw coming”.Honiara’s main river, the Matanikau, burst its banks in the storm, sweeping awayhouses and bridges and flooding the downtown area.“We were watching the river but never expected it to rise so fast. It took us bysurprise. That is why there are deaths,” Zoleveke said.Eleven evacuation centres have been set up at schools and at Honiara’s internationalairport, the World Vision aid agency says.It says that the domestic airport terminal is under water and there are fears aboutthe spread of disease once the water subsides. Other parts of Guadalcanal province –where the capital is located – have also been declared disaster zones, officials say.“Clean water sources have been contaminated, sanitation facilities destroyed andthere is a lack of medicines to treat people who get sick,” said Lawrence Hillary,World Vision’s emergency response manager in the islands.While water levels were reported to be subsiding on Saturday, aid agencies havewarned that police still face the unpleasant task of finding more bodies in seasideand river debris.The official number of deaths was, however, lowered on Saturday to 12 from theprevious day’s toll of 16,Save the Children said on Friday that the scale of the damage was still unclear outside Honiara as both bridges out of the city had been cut off. However, it saysthat in the city itself thousands of homes have been completely washed away.