The disaster relief assistance from the state for the people directly impacted by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that shook the East Sepik province early Monday morning, will take some time to reach the affected communities and not right away.
The Director of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Disaster Centre (NDC) Colonel Carl Wrakonei confirmed that he and his team have received some reports from the provincial disaster team on ground doing assessments on some of the areas hit by the massive earthquake.
They reported three deaths so far, one in Wewak district and two in Angoram district. Col. Wrakonei also clarified that there have been reports from other sources on ground but the NDC rather get the information from its provincial office team and that full report is expected by this afternoon.
Once that report gets in, it will give the details of the damages to infrastructures, which areas were hit badly, the number of casualties and displaced people, and what assistance is needed.
From that report, the Director explained that the planning process will commence as to how resources will be deployed to provide relief assistance to the affected communities.
“We at NDC coordinate the response, from here we coordinate how the police, the defense force, the NGOs and the provincial disaster office, on assisting the impacted communities on ground,” he said.
“Once we get the reports from the assessment team of the damages, deaths and the cost of assistance, we then send a submission to the government to send us the funding we need to commence the exercise.”
Once funding is received, he said the funds will be used to purchase non- food items like materials for damages to buildings and infrastructures, and the food items for the affected communities.
However, the Col. said that the relief assistance now will depend on the government approving the funding submission that would be sent and that may take some time.
Therefore, he did not give a time frame or whether the assistance will be given sooner to the affected people.
He said all these will now depend on the assessment report coming in and the response of the government on relief funding.