Two Seventh-day Adventist families are among villagers who survived a cyclone in Anuta and Tikopia, Solomon Islands, Dec. 28. No fatalities were reported.

Because of the cyclone’s severity, it was feared that there would be many casualties on the devastated islands, but the worst injury was a broken wrist.

“The families are okay, except for their houses and crops, which are totally destroyed,” reports Hennie Murray, secretary for the church in the Eastern Solomon Islands.

“The villagers are prepared for cyclones because the islands are in a cyclone belt,” Murray says. “They usually bury their food, and they hide in the caves or under the overhanging rock on Tikopia.”

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency in the Solomon Islands is providing containers to carry and store water while the villagers wait for their water supply systems to be rebuilt, says David Cram, director of ADRA, Solomon Islands, who headed the National Disaster Management Office operations room during the relief effort. The relief agency will also provide materials to rebuild the systems.

There are nearly 24,000 Adventists in the Solomon Islands worshiping in more than 130 churches.