Lik Simelum and his life-long survival story

Sitting about 1,200 miles off the east coast of Australia is a series of islands that belong to a nation called Vanuatu. This small island chain has been classed by the UN University World RiskIndex as being the most at-risk country on earth from natural disasters, but it also happens to be home to a man called Lik Simelum who’s survived more of them than probably any other man alive.

The region is of sub-tropical climate and Vanuatu is directly in the firing line of any storm that comes off the Pacific Ocean. Cyclones and Tsunamis are much more frequent than volcanic eruptions or earthquakes that occur from the country sitting directly on top of the fault line of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. The location of the country means that natural disasters happen regularly, and for Lik Simelum he saw his first one at the age of 11.

In December 1950, a series of tremors caused the Benbow volcano on the island of Ambrym to erupt and spew out ash and toxic clouds for almost an entire year. The situation got so bad that the crops were smothered and died, and the drinking water became contaminated. Eventually, a joint British and French-led effort came to the island to evacuate the residents to the nearby island of Epi.

After being on the new island for less than a year, a huge cyclone hit the region, sank four ships, and killed several people. The winds missed Simelum and his family but triggered a landslide that tore through the middle of his home, an event that killed his father and brother. His mother managed to survive the landslide by climbing onto the rafters of their house but was still hit by debris which broke her back.

Simelum wouldn’t see his next disaster until 1987 when another cyclone hit the island. This time it ripped the front porch off his home and threw it up into the air, followed shortly by a mudslide that filled his entire home with several feet of mud.

The next major disaster came in October 2009 when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country. Simelum was told his village was about to be wiped out by a tidal wave with only minutes of notice, so he and the other villagers ran up a nearby hill, only to find out the wave never materialized. They didn’t go by unscathed from the earthquake, with numerous buildings collapsing and trees and mudslides blocking roads.

The last major storm was cyclone Pam which hit in 2015 and brought winds of 280km/h to the country. There were 24 confirmed deaths from the storm but Simelum was yet again untouched by Mother Nature. Cyclone Pam destroyed most of his kitchen but otherwise left him untouched, something he puts down to pure luck. There was $692 million USD of damage done to the countries that were affected by the cyclone, with only about $300 of that done to Simelum house.

After all the major natural disasters he has lived through, there have been countless minor earthquakes, eruptions, landslides, and cyclones that have killed many people across the region over the years. Simelum puts his ability to survive natural disasters down to nothing more than luck, as no one can predict or compete with Mother Nature, and avoiding such things isn’t normally up to you.