Residents of Kanton Island said they were malnourished and starving because a government supply ship hadn't been able to get there.
A British sailor delivering a yacht from Hawaii to Australia may have been a life-saver for 24 inhabitants of a remote Pacific island.
Yachtsman Alex Bond decided to make a stop Sunday at Kanton Island, part of the Phoenix Islands in the nation of Kiribati, during his trans-Pacific delivery voyage, according to a release from the British coastguard.
Greeting him on the island were 24 malnourished residents, including 10 children. They had been living on only fish and coconuts for two months because a Kiribati government supply ship that normally brings their food had not been able to get to the island, CNN affiliate ABC News in Australia reported.
The island, which is surrounded by several uninhabited islands, is about 2000 miles from and midway between Hawaii and Fiji in the Pacific.
“We had no idea of the trouble they were in when we arrived. The adults were in a poor state and the children were suffering serious malnutrition,” Bond told The Falmouth Packet by phone.
Bond gave the islanders the few supplies he could spare from the yacht and used a satellite phone to contact the British coastguard station in Falmouth, England, near his home in Penryn, British authorities said.
“So far, we have been given a shopping list of provisions such as cooking fat, rice, sugar and flour,” the British coastguard said.
British authorities contacted U.S. Coast Guard authorities in Honolulu, who notified the Kiribati consulate on the Big Island, Lt. Gene Maestas of the 14th Coast Guard District told CNN.
"That's the extent of our involvement thus far. A relief ship is supposed to be bringing supplies to them but we have not been asked for help," he said.
“It is a beautiful island in the middle of nowhere, but their regular delivery of food had failed to show up and was at least five weeks away,” Bond said in the Packet report.
“We’re not leaving until I know they are okay. They are wonderful people,” he told the Packet.
Kanton, the only island in the Phoenix group with a permanent population, served as an air base for U.S. forces during World War II and later as a missile tracking station.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Uh yeah.
New flash for the morons who posted "why be there if it can't sustain them?".
Could New York City sustain it's citizens if the food was not brought in from where it's grown, raised and/or produced?
People in glass houses etc etc.
Go buy a clue... assuming the local grocery store that you rely on for YOUR food happened to get a shipment of that.
Sheesh.
This is not a regular island. It looks like there is very, very little arable land. Check it out: http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&q=Kanton%20Island&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
or try Google Maps.
Unfortunately, still no sign of the Minnow and its crew and passengers, including millionaire Thurston Howell III.
I hope this never happens to those poor people again. I think they should demand some explanation from their government for making them live there and then somehow not being able to help them, when others were able to make it and help.
I'm sitting here in tears reading these comments. It seems that rather than take the time and effort to learn about a situation people would rather condemn and judge. Particularly 76, I can't wait for the day life throws you a curveball and you need help. I hope it's there, and I hope you remember the comment you made here.
I will try to help anyone in need who asks me for help. There's government welfare, and then there's being a decent human being. Cooking fat, rice, sugar and flour... I'd be more than happy to give my money for these basic provisions to help 14 adults and 10 children survive... Since the story doesn't have a lot of details, people speculate. But, FYI – these people are not receiving "welfare." They are workers for the government, maintaining the island's airstrip and wharf... Research before you draw conclusions or draw comparisons...
I wonder how many people, historically, have stumbled upon some starving natives in some remote part of the world, and were never heard from again. He's lucky he didn't get eaten....LOL...If you're ever in the Amazon jungle and you come across starving natives, RUN!!!!! Don't offer to help......Trust me, I lived there....
supposedly it has no freshwater and very little rainfall. Anyway, why do people live in places that are not sustainable? Who knows maybe they have nowhere else to go...
How many of the people who say the island people shouldn't live where they need supplies from outside could live wherever they are if all the markets closed? We don't know the whole story or why they are there – maybe their work is there. Maybe they were malnourished because they didn't have enough fish. Of course, this brief story doesn't tell anything like all the details.
Face it, if we Americans weren't up to our eyeballs in mouth-breathing deluded clueless morons, we wouldn't have Jerry Springer, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.
Of course they're going to assume it's a welfare state.
Of course they're going to forget the fact that much of own food is imported (i.e. shipped) in from other locations.
Heck, I'm surprised that the nay-sayers were able to read the article at all.
Donna – they working for the government, helping to maintain the world's largest protected marine area, which has undisturbed and pristine eco-systems virtually untouched by humans. I guess that's not good enough work to receive basic rations according to many of the posters here...
Oh come on Mike. Relax yourself. So this forum is full of mouth breathing morons, but you tune in to read what the morons have to say? Are you like the fat guy who surrounds himself w/ fatter people instead of losing weight? Stop being such an insulting jerk and get a life dummy...If you ask me, you're the moron for sitting there reading 100+ posts of things posted by people you call morons.....What a friggin dope....
Wow! I'm always amazed at the pettiness and mean-spiritedness of my spoiled, fat, sullen countrymen. Welfare state? Yikes. I only hope that you are in need and no one comes to help you. Did you bake your own bread today, grow your own vegetables? All good deeds are apparently considered "welfare" to you. May you never be a recipient of kindness. You don't deserve it.
First of all I am very happy these people were found and they are getting their supplies – thank goodness their prayers were answered.
My question conerns the itsland – when I googled it an airstrip showed up and was mentioned in the captions above – if the original boat didn't show on time why wasn't something flown in? Even if it came by float plane surely it would arrive faster then 5 weeks.
Just wondering – seems like there are many holes in this story but thanks goodness there is a happy ending!!!
So these people sit around on an island waiting for someone to bring them food? Nice!