Vanuatu's Lik Simelum a true survivor as Cyclone Pam is but one disaster

Volcanic eruptions, landslides, earthquakes and cyclones: 76-year-old Lik Simelum from Vanuatu has survived them all.

He lives in a country that's ranked by the United Nations University as the world's most at-risk for natural disasters. But his story is remarkable even in an archipelago that has grown familiar with nature's fury. It is also filled with sadness: his father and youngest brother were both killed by a landslide.

Simelum survived yet another disaster this month when Cyclone Pam ripped through the South Pacific archipelago, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 17 people. Simelum's outdoor kitchen was blasted to pieces, but he doesn't seem too worried about that.

Simelum's story begins when he was just 11, living on the central Vanuatu island of Ambryn. In December 1950, violent tremors began on the Benbow volcano, which then turned into a major series of eruptions that lasted for almost a year.

"I was frightened," he said. "Sometimes during the day there would be a lot of ash going up and blocking the sun."

The ash affected everything, he said, killing crops and contaminating the family's well water. So the joint French and British government evacuated much of Ambryn, relocating his family to Epi Island.