The Fettells were evacuated from Port Vila on an RAAF Hercules on Monday night after surviving the category five storm, bunkered down in a canvas-walled building specifically designed to withstand cyclones.

Adam Fettell, wife Lauri and sons Riley, 8, and Lane, 6, were enjoying a holiday at the Warwick Le Lagon resort, south of Port Vila, following a family wedding when the storm struck just before midnight on Friday.

They were forced to take shelter with around 200 other guests in the purpose-built resort conference hall, as the cyclone tore roofs from buildings and uprooted trees around them.

‘‘At first everyone was still very relaxed – it was like a party, everyone had their own pool beds and were eating food, but at 8pm when the lights went out people became more worried,’’ Mrs Fettell said.

‘‘When it hit we all sort of looked at each other and thought [the building] was going to go. We could see the walls really shaking and all glass from the chandeliers falling down.

‘‘The sound was just like they’d backed two 747s up to the building and let them go full-bore.’’

During the worst of it many of the elderly guests and children retreated to a concrete-walled kitchen for more than two hours, as trees, outdoor furniture and debris battered the hall walls.

The Fettell family emerged the following morning to find resort pools blackened with debris, a roof missing from the main dining area and a jetty the family had taken happy snaps on only days earlier ripped from its foundations.

After clearing away fallen trees and rubbish from the resort, they ventured into the village and discovered it was even worse.

‘The destruction was just crazy,’’ Mrs Fettell said.

‘‘The villages were just gone – you had poor people just sitting under umbrellas for shelter and holding babies, because their houses were just gone.’’ 

The family were evacuated on an RAAF Hercules on Monday night – much to the excitement of Riley and Lane.

They arrived in Brisbane at 10.30pm before returning to the Illawarra late on Tuesday afternoon.

Mrs Fettell thanked the staff at the resort for their concern and professionalism at such a stressful time.

‘‘The people at the Warwick Le Lagon were brilliant, we wouldn’t have felt safe anywhere else,’’ she said.

‘‘Our thoughts are just with the poor people in Vanuatu who have to rebuild – we get to come home but it’s going to take them ages to rebuild.’’