Operation PNG Assist

The ADF aid response to Cyclone Guba

The first major South Pacific cyclone of the 2007/08 season developed out of a tropical low in the northern Coral Sea on November 13, and went on to devastate parts of Papua New Guinea’s north-eastern coastal region around Oro Province. In the aftermath of the cyclone, ADF aircraft and personnel were dispatched to the area to deliver relief supplies to the people of Oro Province under Operation PNG Assist.

Guba, as the storm was named by the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Port Moresby, began to intensify on the morning of November 14, and alerts were subsequently issued to eastern coastal and island communities of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula. After drifting erratically around the Coral Sea for several days, Guba strengthened to a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of more than 140km/h and a barometric pressure of less than 970kPa. Even though the cyclone remained small and slow moving, it was particularly intense on its northern flank which lashed Oro and neighbouring provinces with torrential rain and two metre high storm surges for six days before it eventually dissipated into a tropical depression on November 20.