‘It was the most terrifying moment of my life’

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Aust will continue to support Vanuatu as it recovers from Cyclone Pam.

Zoe Marshall is safe and well, but worried about her host family on Pentecost Island. Source: NewsComAu

FOR the desperate parents of Canberra teenager Zoe Marshall, the week she was missing in Vanuatu following Cyclone Pam was torture, but they had no idea how harrowing the situation was for the volunteer teacher herself.

There were celebrations when the 18-year-old returned to Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Friday after being stranded on Pentecost Island since the fatal storm tore through the island nation, killing at least 11 people.

Zoe Marshall arriving back in Port Villa. Pic: Mark Calleja Source: News Corp Australia

But while she made contact with her relieved family telling them it was all OK, smiled for waiting cameras at the airport and kept her cool being introduced to foreign minister Julie Bishop, the 18-year-old held back on revealing the harrowing ordeal she'd endured over the past week, and her concerns for the devastated village she left behind.

Scarce food, dirty drinking water, sudden sickness and ducking falling trees to find shelter defined the days following the cyclone warning.

The school Zoe was teaching at was destroyed and the village's one water tank that survived the storm had run dry. Although she was happy to make contact with her family and be transported to Port Vila by an ADF helicopter on Friday, Zoe says she's left behind a community in crisis.

"I was so happy to be able to tell my parents that I was OK, but really it's not about me, the place is in crisis," she tells news.com.au.

"They've got no food, no drinking water, and all the homes and buildings have been destroyed."

Some of the devastation in Vanuatu, a week after Cyclone Pam tore through Pic: Nick Perry. Source: AP

Since arriving on the outer island in February as a volunteer teacher with global development group Lattitude, the worst Zoe had been through was a rainstorm.

When her village got warning of a category 3 cyclone coming on the Wednesday, almost two weeks ago now, they weren't too concerned.

"We weren't really worried but we were kind of preparing," she says.

"On Wednesday classes were cancelled, we took out three or four of the really big trees and reinforced all of the teachers' houses.

"We didn't realise how bad it was until the day before it hit us when we got the message that it was now a category five."

That was Thursday, when Zoe sent a text message back home to her mother, Alison Abernethy, that has since been read thousands of times after Ms Abernethy shared their correspondence as she delivered a plea for help in finding her daughter.

"Sorry for the early text but don't know when phone will work. We've got a cat 5 warning. Should hit us tonight. Should be all good," Zoe wrote.

Zoe's text message struck a chord and made headlines. Source: Supplied

Zoe's dad Rob Marshall, mum Alison Abernethy, and little brother Angus Marshall. Source: News Corp Australia

It was more than a week before she made contact with anyone outside the island again.

"Friday morning we woke up after reinforcing the roofs and went down to the kitchen for breakfast like normal," she says.

"But the wind had really started to pick up. Coconuts were falling on the roof and we went up to a sleeping house where I stayed with 11 kids, my placement partner Courtney, and one of the mothers when it hit."

The group didn't last long in the fragile house as they watched trees and bits of buildings flying around them outside.

"At one point the house that I was in was on a 45 degree angle from the ground, and after about three hours our host mother said we couldn't stay there any more, it wasn't safe," she says.

Zoe describes the dash down a hill which was "pretty much vertical" to find another safe spot as "the most terrifying moment of my life".

"It was pouring rain. We had 15 people to get down that hill, little kids," she says.

"We had trees coming down on us so we had to keep running and stopping, running and stopping.

"At one point I thought a big tree had landed on one of our seven-year-olds. That was the worst feeling, the most terrifying moment."

After the 30 minute journey the group found shelter in one of the brand new houses in the village of Wosak where Zoe's host family lives, staying overnight as the chaos outside continued.

"Waking up the next day was so weird," she says.

"Eventually we were able to go back up to the school and it was just silent. The day before had been pretty hairy, it was chaos, but then there was no noise, it was so strange."

Zoe Marshall from Canberra and Courtney Tilby from New Zealand after arriving back in Port Villa. Pic: Mark Calleja Source: News Corp Australia

Zoe said she and the rest of the community felt lucky. The buildings were destroyed, their gardens where they grew their food were completely flattened, but "everyone survived".

She knew her family would be worried about her and tried every day to call her mum and dad, but she couldn't get through as Pam taken out the island's phone towers.

Illness — "like a really bad cold" — spread through the village and there were a couple of days where Zoe couldn't even get out of bed.

Food was running out and the tank was running dry.

Since arriving on Pentecost at the start of February the 18-year-old had learnt to crack coconuts for fun, but never thought she'd have to do it for survival.

"We spent a good few hours cracking about 20 coconuts and filling our water bottles because the water in there was sterile," she says.

"We knew that it would be clean even though it tastes kind of gross, and there were little kids who needed something to drink."

It was after seven days that an Australian Defence Force helicopter flew over the island bringing back five Australians to their base at Port Vila but couldn't land to pick up Zoe and her Kiwi colleague.

Supplies were dropped off to the village and the following day Zoe was picked up and brought back to Port Vila.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met with Zoe and her fellow volunteers in Port Vila yesterday. Pic: Mark Calleja. Source: News Corp Australia

Today she's assisting with distributing water to areas outside of Port Vila affected by the cyclone, and worrying about her host family.

While she has no official plan of where to go now, Zoe says she's determined to stay in Vanuatu but won't return to her specific placement.

"There's a food crisis in the village, it's not fair on them for me to be there when that's going on," she says.

"My family which has a mum a dad, and two siblings including baby sister lost their house in the storm. Any houses that are still standing they're just stuffing with people. It's a bit of a mess.

"They need new water tanks. It's an absolute crisis. They need water and food."

Zoe's mother Alison has revealed to news.com.au they have organised with a contact in Vanuatu to charter a helicopter so the teenager can deliver supplies and say goodbye to her host family, hopefully within the week.

Aid packages and Australian troops have arrived on the Vanuatu island of Tanna after Cyclone Pam.

During a flying visit to Vanuatu yesterday to see the effects of Cyclone Pam, foreign minister Julie Bishop said Australia would support Vanuatu for as long as it needs.

The people of Vanuatu have been through a very devastating experience," she said.

"But they are resilient and they are stoic.

"We will be here for as long as it takes to respond to short term needs and we will also be here for the long term recovery."

Australia is providing more than $10 million in relief funding to help Vanuatu recover.

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